Harrow to Zion
by Starspike7
Summary: Tawn has found a reason to live after fourteen years of nothing. He wants power, he wants family, and most importantly he wants to know why he was only told of his mother's death instead of seeing a body. In the midst of it all, a man is stealing semblances and marked him as a target.
1. Empty Spaces

Rain pelted Tawn's face as he stood his ground on top of the mountain. Everything he had trained for his entire life had lead to this. Back-breaking work and many blisters had forged his body into an armored chassis that could take any punishment and deal it back tenfold. He gripped the sword and shield tight. With what felt like the weight of the world on his shoulders, he marched toward the doors of the fortress. As he approached, the guards lining the walls kept their guns trained on him.

They didn't matter, though; through the doors were his friends, family, and love. Everything he held dear had been taken away, but he wouldn't let it stand for much longer. The doors were towering, but didn't daunt him in the least. This was it, the moment of truth. He raised his foot and kicked the doors where they met, swinging them both open; one hit the wall with a bang and bounced.

The corridor, a long carpeted path, was lined with the most heinous traps ever conceived: dog kennels. Each kennel held someone important to Tawn, from his mother to his best friend, Indigo. The face of his mother, vibrant and healthy, seem to not quite meet his own with its expression of regret, and brought about a nagging feeling of longing that was quickly snuffed out in favor of focusing on the current mission. Everyone was here to watch, which meant that _the Dog Catcher_ was here as well. The limp dog ears on Tawn's head stood a bit higher as he took on an attack stance.

Tawn locked eyes with _Him_ at the end of the path, brandishing a net and dog leash. "So, you've finally come, Tawn? Here to watch as I put your family to sleep forever?"

Tawn grasped the open front of his coat, arms crossed, and shook loose what water he could. "Alright listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. Give up my family or give in. I've already won."

"Foolish boy, your false confidence will be your downfall." The dog catcher held his net stick out and it changed into a glaive. "Now, fall before me or be put to sleep within the kennel."

"Never!" Tawn barked.

The catcher lept forward and stabbed his glaive at Tawn, but the faunus caught it with his shield, sparks flying as they collided. The dog catcher didn't give him an inch of progress, and took advantage of the shield blocking Tawn's field of vision to throw the leash around his neck. It cinched tight, restricting Tawn's airway, and he knew that he didn't have long before he would completely black out.

There was no way he could lose however, not when he was so close. Tawn swung his sword and slashed the leash, separating himself from the catcher. It didn't get the collar off but at least it wouldn't cinch down any tighter.

Tawn attacked, committing swish after swish of his sword. It all was for naught, though, as the catcher would not let a single attack hit him. Then, he pulled his glaive back and it transformed back into a net.

The catcher swung the net and caught Tawn, dragging him in the ground. The labrador faunus struggled and swiped but couldn't break the net as it constricted around him. The end near his feet closed into a ring small enough that not even a pencil could fit through.

The catcher lifted Tawn up in the net and started walking toward a kennel. "Well now, looks like I've completed my collection."

He threw Tawn into the very last kennel, the ring part of his net separating so that Tawn started fighting the net even harder and inching toward the opening. He was still stuck in it as he landed. He couldn't let the door close. If it did, then-

The door closed, locking him in forever apart from his family, from Indigo even, his friend from work. Everything he had trained for and everything he'd fought for was moot. Wasted on his attempt to be a hero. Work? Something tugged in Tawn's mind and it began to spin. No, the room spun slowly, his vision fading away along with the floor beneath his cage, the darkness mounting with the despair of failure until it crashed into a hard floor.

Tawn woke up from his dream, in a very different cage, one of the familiar soft brown walls of his shelter.

He hated that nightmare and it was coming to his dreams more and more. The look on his mother's face lingered in his mind the longest. It was the last way she looked at him before they took her into the hospital. The image of it alone sent chills up his spine, the sadness and disappointment she shot at him with it haunting him.

He wiped off the sweat on his forehead and pushed it out of his mind. There was no reason for her to look at him like that, or not one that he could think of. It was such an intense look though that it has been with him a little over four years now. Just thinking of the dream made him wonder what he could have done at ten to disappoint her so much.

It was a long fight with his brain as he attempted to push the thought of his mother and everyone out his mind. Exhaustion was his hero in the end and he managed to drift off again, hopefully to more pleasant dreams.

Tawn rolled over and reached for his nonexistent covers. The light was slowly creeping in from the holes in his cardboard box and into his eyes. Refrigerator boxes were great for sleeping in because they had so much room. That being said, they always started to go at the worst times. Fall was just around the corner, and he was going to have to find something that was fresh to last him well into the rainy months. Sure, there were homeless shelters, but all the people that would be there were thieves, addicts, and bullies.

He scratched behind his ear before opening his eyes fully, backing out of the box and into Vale. The air around him was warmer than he expected, and the sun was well above the hills - meaning it was nearly if not already seven o'clock. That could only mean one thing: he was late.

Tawn took off as fast as he could through the alleyways, over bushes, and across streets. Hopefully, Mr. Ranger wasn't up as early as usual, otherwise, Tawn was definitely fired; if not, he could just work his way in with the other workers. Mr. Rangers was the only one he worried about seeing him, the foreman didn't care if you were late so long as you got the work done that he'd assigned. After about a half mile, he finally arrived and, to his relief, the gates were still closed.

He worked at a gigantic mansion estate with about thirty other Faunus. It was a five acre plot of land that the owner, Gamboge Ranger, had managed to get his hands on a few years ago. It wasn't too good of a job since Tawn got paid in coins most of the time.

That said, Mr. Ranger was fair where it counted. He could guarantee that he'd be fed on the job - and Mr. Ranger would pay out of his own pocket, no less - and that if he messed up, he wouldn't be beaten and berated unnecessarily. The worst he'd get would be an insulting nickname and an up-front statement that he'd screwed up.

Tawn mostly worked in the flower gardens, digging holes so that the planters could come through and put the flowers in. It was hard work for five lien an hour, but it was all he could get. Still, Tawn held his head up high and wore a bright smile on his face.

He didn't have as bad of a life as he could in this situation. He could have been like some of the other kids his age and gotten addicted to the next big street drug trend. His parents had taught him a lot before they died, but the thing they emphasized the most was to hold onto what little money he had with an iron fist. He was only going to buy the essentials, and essentials were water, food, and a better place to sleep at night.

"Sleep late?" A familiar voice asked from behind him.

The boy glanced back and saw his friend Indigo standing behind him, her smile looking a little happier that he was there. "Yeah, had a bad dream again."

Indigo was one of Tawn's best friends since he started working for Mr. Ranger. Though she often told him very little personally, they had established a good relationship. She was a ferret faunus and had the tail to prove it. Being part ferret, she was a bit shorter than the rest of the kids her age, that made her stand out in a crowd but also easily concealed when she wanted to be.

She crossed her arms and gave him a flat look. "Was it the dog catcher again?"

"Yes, but this time I was fighting him with a sword and shield. I was like a knight from the old days," he said, a sense of longing coming over him.

Indigo smacked him in the back of the head, bringing him back to the present. "Alright, dreamer, just make sure you are paying attention today. We don't need you digging another crater in the garden."

He winced at the pain in the back of his head and the memory of a couple weeks ago. He let himself get lost in thought and just kept digging. The entire time, he got faster and faster until he dug himself a hole deeper than he was tall. Still, to Tawn, digging was therapeutic and kept him from focusing on everything holding him down.

"I just got distracted. It won't happen again." Tawn smiled, still rubbing his head. "So, any idea why the gate is still closed?"

She shrugged waving for Tawn to follow her through the crowd of workers. "No idea, might have just felt like he needed to sleep a bit longer than usual today."

"Nah, he's not a lazy ferret like you," Tawn joked, trying to think of a reason that Mr. Ranger wouldn't open the gates yet.

His comment was met with another smack to the back of the head from Indigo. "Stupid mutt."

He chuckled a bit just in time to see a woman walking toward the gate looking worse for wear. There were cuts and bruises all over her body and her clothes were torn like there had been a struggle; she was even gripping her shoulder and limping a bit. It took her a while to get to the gates and once she did, she didn't carry any news that he was too keen on hearing.

"Go home, we have no work for you today!" She called to the crowd of workers waiting outside the gates..

"What's going on?" One of the other kids asked.

"Yeah, why are you beat to shit?" Another called.

"Does this mean we are all fired?" A third chimed.

"Just go!" She turned around and began hobbling back to the door. "There is nothing here

that you are needed for."

Everyone began to slowly disperse as the woman continued to hobble back until all that

was left was Tawn and Indigo. "Something's wrong…"

Tawn looked over at Indigo. "You think?"

"We… I should go in there and check it out." Indigo suggested - or maybe determined.

She turned on her heels and started walking down the fence line, and Tawn followed her closely. "Alright, I'm coming too."

She stopped and put her hand out to stop him. "Tawn, you're too young to come."

"Too young? You're like ten," Tawn said, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm four years older than you."

"Older? Tawn, I'm-" She cut herself off for a second and looked down at herself. "Oh, right."

"What?"

She brought her sleeve up and began wiping away make up that Tawn had no idea was there. Then she started moving, her back and joints cracking the entire time. At first, he thought she was in pain but to his surprise, she looked fine. In a minute she was a whole head taller than Tawn. In fact, her full body filled in, and she looked like she was twenty-one. He tried to say something but her entire transformation was unbelievable to him.

"Tawn, I think you can see now that you are _a lot_ younger than me." She smiled, her new, older feminine look making Tawn feel a lot different about her.

"What the hell just happened?" He questioned, gesturing to her new body.

She smiled a bit awkwardly. "Yeah, my bones aren't as set as a lot of other faunus, being part ferret and all. It kinda allows me to shrink down and let my childish looks do the rest. Makes it really easy to pull off long term operations like this."

"That's… uh, cool I guess." He scratched his head. "Okay, I'm still confused. Why do you want to go in there? Why are you faking that you are younger? And why can't I come?"

She crouched down a bit to get to Tawn's eye level. "Tawn, you're too young for what I'm about to do. Go home, but call the cops first."

"I'm not that much younger than you."

"Tawn, you're fourteen and haven't attended anything that would teach you fighting skills."

"Yeah, but... "

She turned away from him and reached under her now way-too-small shirt, drawing a sai from her side. After that, she crouched a bit and leapt high enough to clear the fence with room to spare. Both her feet touched the ground on the other side and she balanced herself with practiced efficiency. A quick glance at Tawn and she signaled for him to stay put before rushing off on her own.

"God, just because I'm part dog doesn't mean you have to treat me like one," Tawn mumbled to himself.

He turned around and started to walk away but stopped for a second to look back at the house. There was always a chance that Indigo didn't know what she was getting into and needed help. Then again, he didn't really even know Indigo to begin with, and the fact she wasn't a child but a groan woman also went to show he _really_ didn't know who she was.

Tawn just kept walking down the road, hands in his pockets. Indigo asked - well, more like ordered - him to call the cops, but it wasn't as easily done as she thought. Being poor didn't really help with being able to afford and own a scroll.

"Ah, hell, what am I gonna do…?"

A small tingle in Tawn's gut told him that he had to help her and do what she said. It wasn't just that the worst might happen if he didn't, but no matter what, he made sure he was loyal to everyone he considered a friend. Whether it be stray dogs that wandered into his box or someone he met on the street, if they became his friend, he was their friend for life.

The answer was simple once Tawn gave it the slightest thought. All he had to do was head into one of the nearby stores and call someone. That idea got him moving, and he started running down the street looking for a store that was open. His search immediately proved to be futile as all the stores in the district were closed.

Closing his eyes, he began to think of ways to get the cops out here to help. Slowly, his hands began to work their way up his scalp and he started playing with his ears. It was a bad habit he had while thinking, but in a time like this, he couldn't worry about habits.

 _Let's see, the nearest police station is twelve blocks away and there's no guarantee that I could get them to listen to me. All the shops don't open for another hour so that's out of the question. God damn, if only I could get into them and… That's it!_

He let go of his ears and started running for the nearest shop, being a restaurant. That meant there were tons of chairs outside, ripe for exploiting. Without a second thought, Tawn pulled one of the chairs out from the table and looked at it.

This was a defining moment for him. There could be another way to get the cops but for the life of him, he couldn't think of one. Every other way would take time, and every second he waited was another second wasted. Right now, Indigo could be getting beaten or hurt, and he was just sitting here looking at a god damn chair.

Tawn hefted the chair up and threw it at the diner's window, shattering it. A smile started to come to his face but quickly went away when he realized there was no alarm going off. His fists clenched in anger at the cheapness of the restaurant. It didn't matter, though; it wasn't like he could go to the people and berate them for not having an alarm system for when he wanted to throw a chair through their window. There was no time for that.

Taking up another chair, he ran to the next shop and tossed through their window. Immediately, he was greeted to the sound of alarms blaring. Now, all he had to do was sit and wait for the cops to show up so he could explain to them what was happening. Pride welled up so much in him that if he had a tail, it would have been wagging, but all he had were his ears that perked up. A few seconds later, he realised what he was doing.

"Wait a second… I'm a faunus trying to get the police to help me." He said to himself. "Ah hell."

Sirens began to close in on him, and he thought of all the outcomes getting caught entailed. Not one of them ended with him managing to convince the police to follow him to the manor. Most of them ended with him going to jail or getting deported or… the dog kennel.

That thought got Tawn running back to the house as soon as the first cop car that crested the hill. He took off through the alleys once he was sure that the police had seen him. All he had to do was jump the fence and run into the house with them close behind. Then, he was home free - or, at least, he would have helped Indigo enough.

He got to the end of the alley just in time to see the police car pull right ahead of him and stop. Searching for any way out of it, he noticed that the car wasn't directly in front of the alley but rather was just a small distance from it. He quickly saw that the car was positioned in such a way that he could use the car as a step to vault the fence into Mr. Ranger's estate.

He followed through with his plan and jumped on the top of the car and used that to leap toward the fence. That was when he realized the fence was farther than he expected. He wasn't going to clear it.

Tawn was almost there, he wasn't going to clear the fence but he couldn't afford to to miss. The police were right behind him and if he didn't make it over the fence or at least a good way up it, he would be caught and Indigo wouldn't receive the help she told him to get. He had to make it, for her and everyone inside the house that was in trouble.

Tawn caught the edge of the fence and slammed against it, his grip somehow managing to hold through the pain as the thin wire fence bit into his palm. Without time to think, he scurried up the fence and fell over on the other side. He slammed into the ground with a thud.

Fighting through the pain, he stood up from the ground and winced at discomfort in his gut. If he broke something, it would have to be dealt with later. He needed to get into the house or at least make them think he was in it. Then, maybe they would rush in and find whatever Indigo needed help with.

Making his way forward, Tawn heard the shouts of the police officers but nothing that made sense to him. They seemed far off and horribly muffled. He just kept moving though and ran off behind the house. After he was out of sight, he gave himself a couple seconds to rest, leaning against the house while he tried to inspect what damage might have been caused.

After a quick examination, he guessed the the pain was coming from his lower right side. At worst he had fractured his hip, at best he just bruised something. Either way, he could keep moving and he planned to.

Just as he took a step, a hand shot over his mouth and another around him. "Well well, looks like one of the workers didn't want to take no for an answer."


	2. I Don't Want to Be Here Anymore

The tone of the man that held him suggested that he was happy to see Tawn, but he didn't sound like a good man. He lifted the pup with uncanny strength. The way he carried Tawn belied experience in his craft. _Am I being kidnapped?_ thought Tawn. The thought was troubling, and it sent Tawn into a frenzy. Tawn twisted, kicked, screamed, and even tried to bite the guy, but he wouldn't let go.

The man took Tawn up the stairs and into the house, where Mr. Ranger, his wife, and Indigo were all tied to chairs and gagged with tape. He brought the wayward pup towards the group and sat him in one of the other chairs while another came and tied him up. He struggled with all his might but there was no way to break the big guy's grip.

Mr. Ranger's usually-kempt green hair was strewn about and his face had several small cuts on it, as if his skin was torn. The only clothing he had on was his torn button-up and some shorts. Based on the raggedness of the fabric, they were once a pair of Mr. Ranger's pants that'd been cut up. This change in his clothes and general look was surprising to Tawn; he had never seen his boss like this.

Mrs. Ranger didn't look too different from when she had told them all to go home. However, he did notice that the ends of her hair and thumbs were burned. While she was more clothed than Mr. Ranger, that was the only good fortune it seemed she had; bruises and welts marred her skin almost everywhere he could see.

The new man was tall and lean; a stark contrast to the man who had brought Tawn in. "Where'd you find that?"

The big one walked out in front of Tawn and he saw that the man was wearing a brown suit, far from the kind of clothes he'd expect a burglar to wear. "Found this stray out back, digging through the trash."

"Figures." The lanky guy turned to Tawn, giving him a whiff of the nastiest smell Tawn had experienced; somewhere between 'decomposition' and 'weeks-old rancid food'. Calling him greasy was an understatement, he looked more like a strip of pink fat, as everything immediately visible was pink. His undershirt, belt and boots were black to make the whole stand out look.

The big guy looked around at everyone and caught Indigo looking at Tawn with alarm in her eyes. "Oi, what's this now? Seems the rodent knows the pup."

"Eh, all them faunus know each other." The greasy guy stated. "Now, what do we do with him?"

"Well, I caught a whiff of bobbies out front. Looks like they was here for 'im." The big guy put a finger to Tawn's chest with enough force to knock him onto two chair legs before falling back to four. "What did ja' do pup? Don't tell ol' Russet that ya' got them on your tail to bring them to us."

Tawn was too scared to speak, these guys towered over him and looked ready to kill him in an instant. All he could do was shake his head quickly and hope they bought the lie. That led the two of them to look at each other and laugh.

"Ah, forget about it anyway. We got this place on lockdown. And with your boss over there under our thumb. We can do anything on this property." The greasy guy said, gesturing over to Mr. Ranger.

There was a loud thud from the second floor, followed by heavy foot steps heading down the stairs. As they grew louder, everyone else grew quiet and a hint of fear hung in the air. Even the guys that were watching him and the others seemed to be quietly afraid of what was coming. He took a look over at Indigo to see sweat start pouring down her forehead.

"Alright, they broke their phones, smashed their computers, and overall disconnected fucking everything in the goddamn house so that I couldn't find her!" A guy clad in green walked over to Mr. Ranger and pulled his head back. Fury was written on his face. "I'll give you ten seconds to-" He cut himself off and looked back at Tawn. "Who's the mutt?"

"Don't know boss, but the huntress does," the man who called himself 'Russet' remarked.

The man walked over and tore the tape off Indigo's mouth. "Alright, what's with the boy?"

"I've never seen him before," she said, though not very convincingly.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Alright, bring out the battery."

The pink guy let out a chuckle and walked over to the couch. "We gonna hook her up, boss?"

He looked Indigo right in the eyes, making sure that she was looking right at him. "No, we are gonna hook up the pup."

"No, you-" He shut her up by putting the tape back over her mouth but she still tried to object.

Tawn began to struggle at his ropes after hearing the guy say they were going to hook him up to a battery. "C'mon guys. I just work here. It's not like I know anything about whatever you are looking for. I was just curious to see why Mrs. Ranger was bruised and bloody."

"Curiosity killed the cat, eh?." The big guy said.

"I'm a dog."

"Still a house pet, so the saying can still apply." He spat back, pulling some jumper cables out of his pocket and hooking them up to the battery.

The guy in green walked over to Mr. Ranger and pulled the tape off his mouth. "Alright, I'm giving you one chance. Where did you send your daughter off to? I already know she isn't at Beacon or Haven."

"I don't… I can't... " He looked at Tawn apologetically before shaking his head. "I won't tell you. Even with the boy's life at stake."

The man slapped the tape on the side of Mr. Ranger's head before spitting in his face. "I don't take pleasure in this. But I _will_ get what I want."

The guy in pink put the black alligator clamp on Tawn's right thumb, causing the poor kid to struggle even harder against his bonds. "Guys, please. I'm just a kid. I won't tell anyone about this! Just let me go!"

The guy walked over and kneeled in front of Tawn and looked him right in the eye. "Sorry, kid. You didn't ask to be here. Hell, the only thing you're guilty of is being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Just remember, it's not your fault that I'm doing this." He pointed Tawn's head toward Mr. Ranger. "It's his. Hook him up."

Mr. Ranger didn't even make eye contact with Tawn, instead he just looked away and kept repeating one phrase. "I'm sorry, Tawn. I'm sorry."

He let go of Tawn and the pink guy attached the other clamp to his other thumb. He flinched back and so did everyone else, including Tawn, as he waited for the electricity to shoot through him. After about three seconds, his eyes opened up and he didn't feel like anything was happening. The battery was out of charge.

"Uh, boss, we got nothing."

Tawn and Mr. Ranger both let out a sigh of releif before Leech put the tape back over Mr. Ranger's mouth.

"Goddamnit. I told you to pick up a fully charged battery." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I did." Russet said, adjusting his collar. "Coho must have screwed it up."

"Hey, I didn't do anything to the goddamn battery."

"Look, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Stupid, go out to Gamboge's truck and just pull the battery. We don't have time to argue."

"Right. I'll get it." Russet said, taking off out the door.

"Boss, I swear, that battery should have been perfectly fine."

The boss turned around and grabbed him by the neck. "Look, I am doing this to get ahold of the first worthwhile wind semblance I've come across. I don't need you two buffoons screwing it up. The only reason you are here is beca-"

 _"Tawn, don't panic. It's Indigo."_ Tawn jerked up in his seat when he heard Indigo's voice ring out in his head. _"Quit moving around… Just… hang on… Tawn, look at me."_

He followed her command and made eye contact with her.

 _"Okay, I think I know a way out of this but I need you to close your eyes and clear your mind."_

He looked at her skeptically and then peeked over at the man in green who had his back to them, rubbing his nose. "God damn ingrates. Last time I use locals."

Following her orders again, he closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind but everything just continued to overwhelm him. It was all too much, every time he cleared his mind, he just thought of his heart stopping from electrical overload or these guys beating him like the had the others. No, there was no way that Tawn could find calm in the nightmare he was in. Whatever Indigo's plan was, she would need to do it without him.

 _"Tawn, focus on digging."_

As soon as he heard her say that or at least heard it in his head, he imagined a shovel hitting the dirt. Every scoop he saw in his mind took a small load off his shoulders until he felt lighter than air. He was completely at peace.

 _"What… It's… TAWN, IT'S TOO LATE!"_

Tawn's eyes shot open in time to see Russet let the last red clamp go to connect the new battery. The pup winced as he waited for the electricity to shoot through him. He could see his heart frying in his imagination, his blood boiling from the increase of energy. What little life he had shot through his mind at lightning speed and he realized something in those few short seconds: He didn't have a life to remember.

He was dying here, but did he ever live in the first place? He never felt love for another besides his parents, nor did he have dreams. Everything that people think of was gone, all he could think about was how he never got a life. It made him angry, it made him hate everything that was happening now, but most of all, it made him hate the people that were killing him.

That's when Tawn clenched his hands in anger and rage. Then, his eyes opened when he realized that his fists clenched of his own volition and not from the electricity. Something was wrong with the battery again.

"Idiots, imbeciles, dumbasses, ignoramuses. You all are nothing but ants, losers, and just complete tools!" The man in green was calling Russet and Coho every name in the book.

"Leech, I swear I took the battery out carefully. There is no way that the darn thing should be out of charge." Russet shot back, standing up to the green-clothed man.

"Why do we have to electrocute the lad?" Coho asked, brandishing a knife. "Seems like it would be far easier to slice 'is throat and let the blood drain."

Russet looked to Leech who closed his eyes in anger. "Damn it, the idea of having the battery was to show them that the torture we put them through will break them. Both mentally," he looked over at Mrs. Ranger, who was a ghost of her old self, "and physically." On the last word he looked over at Tawn.

"Blood dripping from a gaping wound till the poor sod dies is just as good." Coho turned around and held the knife out to Tawn's throat. "Besides, there is nothing he can-"

Tawn leaned away from the knife and did everything he could to keep it from touching him, but his efforts were useless. The knife inched closer to Tawn's neck, and as it touched skin, there was a bright flash and a loud crack. A bolt of electricity shot through Coho and sent him flying across the room into Indigo. The sheer force of him flying into her carried her backward and they both slammed into the wall. The impact shattered her chair, freeing her of her restraints, save for the chair limbs still tied to her legs and arms.

She didn't pull off the tape on her mouth, instead snatching up the chair legs tied to her ankles and holding them out in front of her like clubs. Her stance and the look in her eye were both with the intent to kill. Nothing was going to stop her from beating the three men in front of her.

Leech looked at her and then at Tawn. "Forget the Ranger's kid. I think I just found something better." He grabbed the side of the confused boys chair. "Hold off the rodent. I need to get to the vehicle."

Russet took a boxing stance and stepped between Leech and Indigo. "Righty-o, Boss, just give me a sec to spank the ferret and I'll join you."

Everyone in the room, including Tawn paused for just a moment and looked at Russet with a look of disbelief. It was such a show stopper that Indigo took a second to rip the tape off her mouth. "Wow, you, uh, wanna rephrase that big guy?"

"Nope." He said, moving in with his fist drawn back to punch her.

Tawn didn't see anything after that as Leech pulled him by the chair and dragged him out the front door. "Seriously kid, I don't know where you came from but you are my big break."

"What?" Tawn asked before getting thrown into the passenger seat of a car.

"No no, don't speak. Just sit there and relax. You have just been upgraded from piece of shit worker trash to my own personal aura supply." Leech got into the car right next to Tawn and locked the doors before starting it. "Now, just sit there and get ready."

"Aura supply? What are you-" Tawn was cut off as the guy grabbed Tawn's head right above his left eye.

There was a second where nothing happened then a sudden burst of pain shot through Tawn from the spot where Leech was grabbing him. It felt as if something was tearing into his head. Then, something began to drain from him, though it wasn't his blood; it felt like something else was being pulled from him, like the very thing that made him who he was was leaving and nothing was replacing it. His head throbbed.

No, this couldn't be the end of his life, not after what he just went through with the battery. Whatever he did before, he called back that same feeling of not wanting to be touched. This time, however, nothing happened this time and all his attempt did was cause Leech to start chuckling.

"Kid, you're not going to be able to electrocute me. Not when I'm literally absorbing you."

So, that was it, Tawn was helpless to this and everything he would ever be able to do was going to be stripped away from him. However, that didn't mean he was going to let this be the end of his life. He was done letting these thugs decide who he was and what they were going to do it him. Pain, fear, and anguish were not going to stop him at any length now.

Tawn pulled away from Leech and was greeted to a spout of blood from his forehead. He didn't know why and he didn't care, he was a dog backed into a corner but he was still gonna fight for his life. There was no giving up now, especially now that he saw how pathetic his life had been.

"Get your hands off me!" The pup shot forward and bit Leech's hand, sinking his teeth in good and deep until he tasted blood.

Leech began to yank and pull at his hand, trying to free himself from Tawn's grip but the kid wasn't going to let go. Each time Leech tried to pull away from Tawn, he sank his teeth in deeper. That made the captor switch tactics, attempting to twist his hand out of Tawn's mouth, but this too was a bad decision. His teeth were at just the right angle to snap the parasite's pinky bone.

The rush of pain forced a gut reaction and Leech punched Tawn in the head, right where he was wounded, knocking him back against the door. Upon hitting the door, Tawn felt the handle slip into his hand. With this break, he pulled it and fell out of the car and onto the ground, shattering the wooden chair he was in.

Leech got out of his side of the car and started walking around. "You little shit! I'm gonna have you neutered."

Standing up, ignoring the blood flowing down his face, Tawn took a fighting stance with the chair still tied to his arms and legs. "Get the hell away from me!"

"Oh yeah, and how are you gonna fight me ya' fuckin' mutt?! With those claws that you don't have? How about those teeth? They aren't savage dog teeth. How about with the weapon that you also don't have?"

Tawn opened his mouth to shout back but immediately closed it when he realized that he didn't know. Of course, he didn't have to say anything as Russet and Coho came flying in from the left and smacked into Leech. The three of them then rolled down the hill and smacked into the fence.

"He may not have the experience to kick your sorry butts, but you will find that I'm more than capable." Indigo said, landing on top of the car with her sai in hand.

Indigo held her sai out, pointing at Leech and the others, with an wild eyed grin on her face. "You guys caught me by surprise last time, but that's not going to happen twice."

Leech pushed the other two oafs off him and stood up. "Listen up, rodent. Nobody had to die before. It was old Gamboge and his wife that were forcing my hand."

"It doesn't matter if you had better intentions. What this is, and has devolved into further, is a kidnapping and attempted murder. You're under arrest, Leech. Anything you want to say?"

Leech let out a roar and charged her, drawing a mace from nowhere. "You think I _care_ about Vale's laws?!"

He took a swing at her but she caught it expertly with her sai and held him with it. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Vale's not the only kingdom that wants you. The one we're in? Yeah, law enforcement here wants to have a few words as well."

Breaking the grapple, Leech spun his mace in hand and stopped it when it glowed red. "Get ready, rodent. I'm gonna burn the entire kingdom to the ground. Starting with you," He spat.

Leech charged in, swinging wildly but Indigo blocked every one of this shots expertly. Each time he brought his mace around, she was already positioning her sai to block it. However, that left her completely open for him to catch her off guard with a punch - a punch with the same effects as when Tawn had shocked Coho. She shot backwards after the attack and slammed into the car, denting it horribly.

Indigo quickly climbed back to her feet and leapt behind the car, flipping her sai around. They split apart at the middle and a small vial came out of the handle, parallel with the main blade. She then stabbed it right into the center of the car, launching it at Leech.

A look of worry crossed his face, but he quickly switched it to a smile and swung his mace. It collided with the car and knocked it back at Indigo, who popped out another vial from her sai and hit it right back. Leech was not having any of that though, and knocked the car off to the side with another dust strike. It landed off to the side with a thud.

He took a second to move but it looked like something shifted in his stance . It wasn't highly noticeable but enough that Tawn saw Indigo's gaze flit to his feet. She flipped her sai around backwards and pulled a second one from her sleeve.

Leech shot forward again and closed right up to Indigo without a moment's rest and swung his mace. Her reflexes were honed and ready for it though, and she brought her new sai down to catch it. It landed with a clink sound and prompted sparks to fly out in all directions. Her free sai closed up and she brought it down on Leech's mace, hooking it at his hand and using both sai to pull it.

The mace was yanked out of his hand and she discarded it to the side. He didn't take too kindly to her knocking away his weapon and punched her right in the sternum. She fought through the pain and flipped one of the sais around and using the butt to strike him in the face.

Leech went careening back but managed to land on his feet and make another quick dash to his mace. She leaped at him this time and brought the blades of her sai down on him. With a quick flick of his mace, it started glowing another color and he swung at Indigo. Both their weapons collided and blasted her back to Tawn and Leech to the car.

He shot behind the car and knocked it back at her, restarting their game of vehicular tennis. With each strike the Dust on the car grew in intensity, transforming it from a flying hunk of metal into a ball of elemental chaos. This volley continued until Indigo dumped two vials into her strike, taking advantage of the surprise to place herself between Tawn and the imminent explosion.

He didn't see much, but he felt the explosion knock him backwards, into the side of the house. Indigo took the brunt of the blast, keeping Tawn as safe as she could. That didn't prevent a loud snap from ringing out as he hit the wall.

She didn't notice the noise - or if she did, she ignored it - instead choosing to confront Leech. "Are you done? If you are, put the mace down and let's do this by the book."

"Hehehe, kid, I already like you a lot more than my other food." Leech said, just as police sirens began to blare from all directions. "And _that_ is my cue to cut this dance short."

Indigo scowled, readying her sai and charging right for him. "Oh no you don't."

"Please, fleabag, you think I came here unprepared?" He closed his eyes and opened them again, unleashing a bright flash that blinded Tawn. The scream of engines filled the air.. Leech yelled something, but Tawn couldn't tell what it was over the sound. Then, it all faded away as the sirens encircled them and police flooded the area.

 **Hey guys, so this is the premise of my story kinda. I know the whole stealing semblances thing is kinda hated on the but I swear if you stick with me. You will enjoy the story. Alright, now to address reviews.**

 **Toothless is the Best: Probably means you are my biggest fan. Congrats! Here's a digital cookie.**

 **Masterdude94: Well, it's a free web series on the internet so… yeah, go watch it. That's all I can really say.**

 **Artisan Bubblegum: It's not a poem. It's a story. Maybe I'll include a character that only rhymes for you. (Probably not)**


	3. Mama, We All Go to Hell

When Tawn's vision returned, the first thing he saw was Indigo wiping her eyes and swearing profusely. He looked around but Leech was nowhere to be seen. All that was left of him and his crew was a spot in the grass where they had all been previously.

"Argh, motherfu-. That bastard and his- what the hell semblance _was_ that? _Damn,_ that hurts." She blinked her eyes open, looking around with tears streaming down her face.

Tawn pushed himself to his feet and shook his head,hobbling over to Indigo and pulling on her sleeve to get her attention. "Can… can you tell me what this all just was now?"

The panic that was in her eyes faded away and she knelt down giving Tawn a hug. "Oh my god, you are the best friend ever."

She squeezed him a little too tight and he winced at the pain in his chest. "Easy, I think I broke something."

Instead of asking him about it, Indigo grabbed his shirt and pulled it up before gasping. "Oh, great. I see your rib sticking out."

"WHAT!?" Tawn said, trying to push his shirt down.

"Calm down, I'm kidding." She put his shirt down and then went up to his forehead. "Damn, that looks painful."

"How big is the gash?" He asked, imagining a cut going across his entire forehead.

"It's… it's big. Y-shaped, too. What did he _do_ to you?" She pulled her hand down, revealing it to be covered in his blood. "Here, I got some wrap and gauze in my sleeve."

She pulled out the bandages and went to work. Tawn frowned as he felt the bandage wrap around his head; the sticky adhesive that kept it in place was a nightmare to remove, especially without pulling out any hair.

Police began to flood the grounds looking for anything of importance and the two from earlier were making a beeline right for Tawn. "That's the kid."

Indigo got in front of them and waved them off. "Hey, back off. Indigo Ocean, Huntress. He's been helping me with a job."

"Ma'am, we have footage and witnesses saying this kid vandalised two properties a couple of streets away," the fatter one said, keeping his eyes on Tawn.

"Really?" She asked, looking at him with a knowing smile. "Even if that's true, officers, I can't let him go that easily. He's part of my investigation, as is everything here. Process the scene and forward the evidence to Professor Ozpin, okay? Flick a copy to any Hunter that drops by, too."

"Of course, ma'am. We'll see to it." He waved the skinny one to follow him and started heading into the house. "Geez, you'd think the Hunters were the cops, not us."

The pup let out a sigh of relief until Indigo slipped her arm around his shoulder with a devilish smile on her face. "Well, now I guess I don't have to hide anything from you anymore. That, and don't think I didn't catch you blushing when I snapped back into my actual body shape."

Tawn looked away, coughing nervously as he realised he'd been caught. "Well, it's not really… I mean…"

"Ah, don't worry, I'm just giving you a hard time." She stood up and pointed over toward the gate. "Now, I get that you'd like to just go back home and pretend none of this happened, right? Unfortunately, there's a few more things for you before you can do that. Gotta take you to Ozpin, he's going to want to hear your side of all this."

"Who's Ozpin?" He asked while she started pushing him to the gate.

She smiled at him and grabbed his arm. "Ozpin's great. He's the head of Vale's Hunters and is pretty much the best teacher ever. If you were wondering how I got so awesome, he's the guy responsible-"

"Yeah, but why do I have to meet this guy?"

"I told you. He'll want to get every witness he can to talk to him. Besides, he's also going to want to hear about your semblance. Gotta say, it was an impressive show you put on back there, might make a good Huntsman."

Tawn pulled away from her and backed up to put a few feet between them. "Can we just… slow down for a second? I mean, I get tied up two by two badguys that I know from nowhere. Then they decide that I'm in need of a charge. Seriously, how lucky is is that I got two bum batteries. Oh, last but not least that Leech guy takes me and puts a palm to my forehead, somehow causing this?" He pointed to where the gash on his head was. "Can we just slow down and answer some of my questions, or at least let me take everything in and figure it out?"

She smiled and ran her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, I guess I have a bad habit of getting ahead of myself. Alright, what's on your mind kiddo?"

"Okay, first off: kiddo? How old are you, because you sure as hell aren't ten."

"I'm twenty. My birthday was three months ago, right before I had to go undercover."

He took a moment to process the information, but stopped when he found the news confusing. "Okay, let's talk about something else. What were you trying to do back in the house when you told me to close my eyes? How did you tell me to close my eyes?"

"That's an easy one. You see, my semblance is telepathy. I can exchange thoughts with someone. Anyway, I wanted you to close your eyes and clear your mind because I was going to try and unlock your aura. You know what that is right?"

"Leech said something about it when we were in the car. He said that he was absorbing it from me," he answered, fidgeting with one of his ears as he thought. "Is it like life force?"

"Kinda, it's like… Geez, Professor Ozpin can explain this a lot better than I can. Okay, I've answered some of your questions. Let's head over to the police station and I'll answer any more you have on the way, okay?"

He glanced down, well aware that police stations weren't bastions of safety for Faunus. However, Indigo was a Faunus as well, so he was probably in safe hands there.. "Okay."

"Great!" She took him by the hand and lead the pup over to one of the police cars. "Hop in. I'll get an officer to drive us."

She opened the door to the back passenger side and allowed Tawn, with slight hesitation, to get in before closing it. Proceeding that, he was left in the car as Indigo searched around for the officer to drive it. It was nice since it gave him a chance to assess himself. Just getting a second to really let his mind and body get on the same page was a godsend. He realized that there was a pounding in his skull from the wound on his head but it was subtle enough that ignoring it was easy. The pain on his side was nothing he could handle either. The only thing that worried him was how drained he felt.

After getting out of the car, he felt weightless, like there was nothing to him at all. However, the weightlessness wasn't pleasant or refreshing, rather it was the kind that made the slightest breeze an attack on his ability to stay centered.

"Alright, you ready to go, kid?" The fat officer asked, getting into the car with him.

"Wait, what!?" Tawn asked, preparing to break the window.

Indigo's hand shot to his shoulder from the passenger seat, settling him down. "Relax, Tawn. Officer Burnie is just taking us to the station to meet Ozpin."

"Hey, that's soon-to-be-inspector Burnie to you. Discovering this insurgency is going to get me a promotion for sure." He started driving down the road and a pit began to form in Tawn's stomach with each block passed.

"I wouldn't call this an insurgency. Most like breaking-and-entering, battery, assault, assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, refusal to cease-and-desist, and maybe a few charges double for doing it to a minor to start." Indigo started checking her sai. "So, any idea what happened to those guys?"

"They used a Bullhead to get away. We tried to follow their trail, but all the traffic up there messed with it. Chances are that they got away."

"Woo. Great job, Vale PD."

Indigo got a weird look from Officer Burnie. "What?"

"What?"

"No need to be snarky. We tried."

"Hey, I don't like to shout. Snarking at them gets the same message across without being as blunt."

"Shouting at a guy tells him he fucked up. Being all passive-aggressive like that just makes you sound whiny. Maybe next time, you Hunters can do your own damn work."

Tawn blocked out their constant bickering and just looked out the window to watch the city change. They were in uptown before but the farther down they descended, the more and more people he saw sitting on the curb. Each time, he would look them over as best he could to see if they were Faunus. It helped him keep his mind off all the questions he had but it also made a creeping heaviness come to his ears. Most of the poor that they drove past were Faunus, looking worse and worse.

The deeper into a sadness he drifted, the angrier he began to get. He felt like his life was wasted all this time since his parents died. Even before, that didn't seem good to him. They always taught him to live for the essentials and stay hidden. His entire life was one without want for a better life, and without anything to be proud of.

If he was going to live a better life, one that didn't inspire disgust from him, he needed to make a change. Tawn made himself a promise starting today and going until he died. He was never going to settle in life. Everything he strove for would be for the best and he'd hold everyone with him to that standard. If he at least tried to do it, then there was nothing to regret.

"Tawn, we're here." Indigo said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

He looked over to the left side of the car and noticed that the police station was right outside. Letting out a silent curse, he got out of the car, a bit angry he got so lost in thought as to miss the station. Then again, the fact that he'd just escaped a life-threatening situation had taken its toll on him.

Following Officer Burnie and Indigo, Tawn was led through the police station and into a small room with a single light overhead. Once there, he was instructed to sit down before they both left him without so much as an explanation. Neither of them had told him anything, which made him wonder if he really was in trouble for breaking the windows. What if Indigo had lied to him about that? What if he was going to be questioned and then shipped off to a correctional facility? That would be a great place to start his new ambitious lifestyle, in a prison cell.

These thoughts drove Tawn to start looking around the room for a vent or a loose panel. Something he could open and crawl through to freedom, but to no entire room was locked down to prevent anyone from leaving. It was a room that was created to hold criminals after all, so of course it would have been secured against escape.

Finally, the door to the room opened and Tawn could see the shape of a woman start to walk through the door. At first, he thought it was Indigo but that quickly faded when he saw that the woman had gold hair. Along with that, she also had a riding crop that made her look ready to hit Tawn the moment he did something wrong.

She stepped into the room and took a seat opposite of him, setting a file on the desk. "Tawny Tang. Fourteen years old. Child of Fern and Tulip Tang. You have run away from any attempt to relocate you to a children's home and have been sticking to odd jobs to merely survive the last two years. Other than that, multiple sightings and accounts of fighting with dog catchers. Is there anything I've missed?"

He looked down at his hands, twiddling his thumbs. "Can you call me Tawn?"

He didn't see her face but she answered softly. "Yes, I'll mark it right here under preferences. Now, you were seen throwing chairs through the windows of several shops. Would you care to elaborate on why?"

He looked up to meet her gaze but his eyes quickly shot back down. "Indigo told me she was gonna need help and that I needed to get the police. I thought that I didn't have enough time to run eight blocks to the nearest phone."

"So, you figured causing property damage to get the attention of the police would be better than trying to find an open store?"

"I… I was just… I'm sorry." He said, his mind unable to come up with reasoning for why he did it. "It seemed like the fastest way at the time."

"It was an expensive method of finding help. Several hundred lien of damage in total. Money I don't think you have the ability to pay off."

He bit his lip to keep from crying or breaking down. "I was just… I… I…"

"Just trying to draw attention. Attention you took away from other crimes in the area. I'm sure you could have thought of a better way, _if_ you had taken the time to think it through." Her voice was getting harsh and Tawn's bottom lip began to quiver.

He hated being around adults that treated him like this. It made him feel small and weak to the world around him. Mostly, it made him miss his parents and how they would protect him. It was almost funny how he was almost to the point of swearing at them a moment ago only to flip back now and wish they were here to protect him.

"Further more, what you did, no matter the cause, is enough to get you put in a juvenile detention facility for at least a year. Maybe more. And-"

The door opened up again, this time it was a man with white hair and glasses. "That will be enough, Glynda. The boy isn't like last person you interviewed."

"Ozpin, I have this under control. Just-"

He waved 'Glynda' to silence as he took a drink of his coffee and sat it down on the table, right on Tawn's file. "Glynda, he's a child with no parents. I believe this is better handled by someone who understands him."

She grumbled and stood up from the chair, walking toward the door. "If you offer this one admission for the next semester too, I quit."

The door slammed behind her leaving Tawn alone with Ozpin. "I'm sorry about her. She can get a bit... overbearing." Tawn blinked the water from his eyes and met the man's gaze. "So, tell me Tawn, how did you get that bandage on your forehead?"

He reached up and ran his fingers over the bandage. "I got cut by one of those guys holding Mr. and Mrs. Ranger."

"Indigo has been on this man's trail for quite a while and we haven't had anyone survive his attacks inform us. If you don't mind, what happened when he grabbed your head?" He asked, eyebrows raised.

"He put his hand on my forehead and then… I don't know. It felt like I was being drained of everything. Not just my blood but who I was." Tawn's hand when up to his ear as he thought about it. "I tried doing this thing to him but he said it wouldn't work while he was draining me."

"Thing? What is it you tried to do?"

"Well, I don't know how I did it earlier but when one of the guys touched a knife to my neck, I kinda shocked him."

"You shocked him? That sounds interesting..." He looked down at Tawn's file. "Especially seeing as your file doesn't mention that you attended any combat school. You shouldn't have an unlocked aura, much less a semblance. Yet Indigo tells me that she couldn't unlock anything when she tried."

"Yeah, uh, what?"

"In other words, you have had your aura unlocked by someone without your knowing. My guess is that one of your parents did, when you were very young."

"My parents unlocked my aura? Does that mean they…" He looked down at his hands. "Why would they do that?" he asked.

Ozpin tapped his forehead, mimicking the spot over Tawn's right eye. "Check underneath your bandage."

He reached up and slipped a thumb under the bandage, expecting blood to come out. Nothing did and instead, he pulled the headband off to find that his wound had closed. Glancing over at the nearby mirror, he saw that it had closed up and scabbed over now. The weird thing was, it was almost like he expected this now.

"Have you ever noticed that your cuts heal a lot faster than your friends? How about that you don't really get hurt all too often?" Ozpin asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"I think this is the biggest cut I have ever gotten." The pup answered, poking his wound.

"It's because your aura has been protecting you." He sat his cup down on the table and leaned forward. "In fact, I think I know how it got activated."

"Hm?" He questioned, leaning in close to meet the white haired man.

Ozpin pulled out a scroll from his pocket and sat it on the table across from Tawn. On it was a picture of his mother but a lot younger than he remembered seeing her. She had her hair in a ponytail on the side of her head allowing both her dog ears and human ears to be in full view. Admittedly, she looked a lot happier in the picture that he remembered seeing her. She was winking to the camera and just looking like she was having a good time.

"Your mother attended Signal Academy for a few years before dropping out for… mysterious reasons. While her grades weren't the best overall, she did have excellent scores in aura and semblance studies. In fact, her parents were medical personnel who would go into the field and use their unique gifts to repair and heal those that had fallen in battle."

"My… mom was going to be a huntress?" Tawn asked, reaching out for the scroll.

He was allowed to take it and look over the file that Ozpin had pulled up. "Yes, although, when her parents died during a Grimm raid, she took it the wrong way. I don't know much leading up to it, but I have a few guesses as to why she dropped out of school."

"... Well, I'm waiting." He said, enjoying the information on his parents and forgetting everything he had thought about them in the car.

Leaning forward and adjusting his glasses, Ozpin took on a heavier tone. "Tawn, what I am about to tell you… Are you sure you are ready?"

"Yeah, this is getting interesting." Scrolling down, he saw a picture of his mom wielding some sort of lance that was on fire.

"Tawn, your mother dropped out of school because of you…"

There was an uncomfortable pause as the scroll in his hand got too heavy to hold and he sat it down. "What?"

Ozpin stood up from his seat and moved it over so there was no table between them. "Your mother was sixteen when she dropped out of Signal. This year, she would be thirty years old. Unless circumstances were a lot more complex than I'm willing to believe, she dropped out when she found out that you would be on the way."

"I… I don't… Why are you telling me all this?" He asked, suddenly wishing that Glynda was in the room instead of Ozpin. At least she would have kept yelling instead of building him up to get knocked down.

"Because, you deserve to know the circumstances that led to your birth. You deserve a look into your family history and to know that you aren't just a vagrant, nor a beggar. Tawn, you have potential."

"Potential?" Tears were building again in his eyes but he wasn't going to cry.

"Yes, Tawn, your family used to be a long line of Huntsmen that accumulated for a long time. Maybe you aren't in the best shape now and behind those you would call your peers now but you have a lineage of potential. On top of that, you have a semblance relating to electricity which always makes for a potent huntsman weapon."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, Indigo told me what she saw when the man tried to cut your throat. While Glynda was talking to you, I decided to run a few tests. The most conclusive evidence, though, is the electromagnetic field you emit. It's not powerful enough to interfere with my scroll, but it's strong enough to be felt." He pulled his sleeve back, revealing that the hairs on his arm were standing on end.

"That lady said she was going to quit if you offered me a spot at your school."

"It's good that I'm not, then."

The confusion had gotten to a point that Tawn was about ready to just leave if he didn't start getting some sort of answered. "Then what was all this about?"

"Getting you out of your box in the back alley off Tenth Street. Tawn, you have potential and built in tools. There is a very good chance that if you applied yourself, you could get into any school in Remnant. Now, while I'd be happy to have someone of your personality at Beacon, I can't, in good conscience, let you in now. You don't have any formal training, nor do you have any knowledge of the subjects required."

"So, what would I have to do?"

"Well, one of Beacon's graduates and your friend has offered to sponsor you in this endeavor, should you choose to accept it."

He rolled his eyes, soaking the tears that hung in them up with it. "Of course this would be Indigo's idea. She was always building me up to knock me down."

"I wouldn't be so angry with her. She is offering to help you do something that many would deem impossible. Trust me, this is an amazing opportunity in front of you. Learn your strengths, weaknesses, and ability and she will have opened a door to a world that most dream of. Now, I think we got far enough off track. Tawn, back to Leech."

"Right, he absorbed me and said that I was the jackpot."

"No doubt he was talking about your power over electricity. Did he say anything else?"

"I couldn't electrocute him while he was absorbing me."

That last thing seemed to disturb Ozpin a bit as his face took on a very subtle grimace before he finally stood up and picked up the file and coffee. "Alright, that will be all Tawn. I'll fill out all the necessary paperwork and then you may go."

He looked down at the table and saw that the scroll was still there. "Aren't you going to take your scroll?"

"Keep it. This way you don't have to break any more windows for help." He commented, exiting the room.

The door closed behind him and that left Tawn alone in the room with a picture of his mom staring back at him. Part of him hoped that what Ozpin had told him wasn't true but another part knew that it was. His mom never held the same affection for him that his dad did. She seemed distant and always looking away from him instead of directly at him when they talked.

Before he could think too hard about it, the door opened up and Indigo stepped in. "Hey Tawny. Grab your scroll and let's hit the road."

He sighed and stood up, taking the device from the desk. "Please tell me that you aren't going to call me that all the time."

"I could, but then I'd be lying." She joked, holding to door open for him. The symbolism of the gesture wasn't lost on him, the door being the path to the rest of his life. Then again, did he really want the path they were shepherding him towards? Or could he find his own way, like he had all these years?

 **Hey guys, I gotta rush off to work in five minutes and since I almost forgot to put this up before going, I'm gonna address the reviews really quick.**

 **Dairegh: Yeah, Tawn is a dog because I was originally gonna parody all the bad fan fics out there with wolf or part grimm faunus. I figured a puppy for a protagonist would be hilarious.**

 **Toothless is best: Don't eat too much or you will get to pay a visit to the dentist.**

 **thejoker122: Thanks, I'm working really hard on it.**


	4. A Place to Rest Your Head

Tawn walked into the small bedroom, bag in hand. He guessed it was about ten foot by ten, a noticeable step up from the three by four box on the street he used to live in. He should've felt happy about the upgrade, but one thing kept coming back to him. The last time he had a room in a house, he had parents to take care of him.

Any tears he might have shed at the thought didn't come to his eyes. Parents were the furthest thing from his mind after Ozpin told him his mother quit her dreams because of him. More often than not, his mind was now on what he wanted to do with his life and how he would spend it now that he had options.

"So, what do you think?" Indigo asked, leaning on the doorway behind him.

He put his small bag of stuff on the bed. "It's nice. Thank you."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Tawn, I know this is going to be hard to get used to, but I can read your thoughts."

"So, you know what I am thinking?"

"Yeah, it's kinda hard to turn off. Want to talk about your future?" She asked, uncrossing her arms.

"I don't know. Will… What happens if I don't want to be a Hunter?" He asked, rubbing his arm awkwardly.

"Tawn, we're friends, not just a kid and his patron. You can stay here even if you don't want to become a Huntsman." She walked in and sat down on his bed. "What would make you worried you wouldn't have a place to stay?"

"I don't know. I recently found out that you were ten years older than I thought. You never really talked about anything besides work with me. We weren't really friends."

She enveloped him in a hug. "Oh, we talked about plenty. I just couldn't talk to you about much since I was undercover. Now, though, just ask away."

"Where did you go to school?"

"Beacon Academy." She answered. "C'mon, ask a tough one. I'm an open book."

He started unpacking his bags. "I don't really have any tough questions for you right now. I just want to get done with all my unpacking and go to bed. It's been a long day already."

"Anytime you need to know anything, I'll tell you. I figure it's not right of me to hear your secrets and not pay you back." She stood up and headed out the door giving Tawn a good look at her figure. "Dinner will be in an hour. My boyfriend will be here so please, don't let him catch you checking me out."

Tawn's face reddened as he realized what he was doing. He quickly shook his head clear before coming back to reality. It was going to be pretty difficult to keep himself in check when his new housemate was a fox. Ferret, he corrected himself.

"Indy, you here?"

His upper ears twitched when he heard the strange voice, but the casual tone told Tawn that the man was friendly. Curiosity got the better of him though, and he wanted to see who this guy was. He left his things half-unpacked on the bed and went over to the door. Peeking out, he saw a guy that looked like a bodybuilder but, other than his humongous size, there was no visible signs of him being anything but human.

Indigo answered him from the kitchen. "Yeah, just making dinner. Oh, so you don't get surprised, I'm letting someone stay with us. It's a kid, don't get too… you know. Hard on him. He's been through some things.."

He stopped in the hallway and glanced back at Tawn. "Wait, what? He's not one of your informants, is he? From that Ragnar guy's place?"

"The Ranger job is over. There were… complications." She passed it off like it was nothing.

"Complications?" He went down the hallway and walked into what Tawn guessed to be the kitchen.

Against his better judgement, he followed the man and snuck down the hallway to the kitchen. The closer he got the more clearly he could hear the agitation in Indigo and the guy's voices.. He needed to hear what they were saying though, and kept inching closer.

"You're kidding me. You got tied up? More important than that, I thought it was just a regular undercover sting. Find out who Gamboge was supporting and what the hell the other workers that weren't working land were doing."

Indigo kept her tone very calm. "It was. Leech and his crew had other plans though and took the Rangers hostage. I wasn't just going to let him get tortured like an animal."

"Yeah, well you could have at least called me for backup. All I do all day is sit on the damn wall and wait for a big Grimm to come wandering in. It's not like I couldn't have gotten out of there to come and help you." He sounded worried and annoyed.

"I had Tawn go call for the police so help was coming." She answered. "Oh, do you feel like tacos or three cheese pasta?"

"Tawn, that kid you said lives in a box down on tenth street? Why would you trust him to save your life?"

"He's a good kid and he's loyal as a puppy. I knew he would get the job done and he did." She said, though Tawn was really starting to get tired of the recent cropping of dog puns in the last couple hours.

"You're too trusting of other people. I definitely wouldn't have trusted that dirty gutter dweller."

"Hey hon, watch what you say. Tawn is the kid who's going to be living with us." She said, venom leaking out in her voice. "In fact, Tawn, want to come in and stop peeking around the corner?"

He froze there for a second. Sure, Indigo could tell he was there thanks to her telepathy, but the guy couldn't. All he would have to do is walk back to his room and say nothing. There was no way in Tawn's mind that the guy would know that she was actually right about him being here. Though, if the guy was her boyfriend, he'd probably trust her to know when someone's there.

Tawn hung his head low and walked into the kitchen, noticing that it was a mixture of greys and blues. "Hey."

"Uh, heh, I mean hey," The guy said, looking at Tawn. "I'm Snow."

He looked up and met Snow's eyes, noticing that they were red and cat-like. "Hey, I'm the gutter dweller."

Indigo stepped away from the stove and crouched down next to Tawn. "Hey, you two better get along from now on. Can't have you getting in fights when we all live together."

The two guys locked eyes before Tawn turned away in disgust. "He's the one who has a problem."

"Yeah, she already said she doesn't want kids then I find out that some ten year old kid is going to be living with us. It's kind of a mixed message."

"Snow!" She shot in disbelief.

Tawn had enough of it though, he pushed past Indigo and went straight back out the front door. He wasn't wanted at her house and there was no way he wanted to be there now. Not when her boyfriend was such a jerk. Without even knowing Tawn, he called him gutter trash. It was so infuriating that he almost punched the wall.

He started pacing back and forth on the small front porch, trying to find some way to shake out his frustrations. There had to be something he could hit or maybe some animal that he could chase. Something had to be nearby to get his mind off the anger he felt.

Indigo came out and moved past Tawn, onto the front yard. "Alright Tawn, you seem tense."

He didn't say anything and instead just looked at her with his blood running hot. She took his hand and pulled him out into the yard. Once they were in the center of the yard, she moved away from him.

"How about we go down the the vacant lot a few blocks away from here and dig a hole?"

"That sounds so stupid." He answered, looking at the ground.

"Ah, what's wrong puppy? Are you grumpy that you haven't gotten a nap yet?" She asked, flicking his ear.

"Alright, stop with the puppy jokes. They are really getting annoying." He glared at her but all she did was match his glare with a comical one.

"Ruff."

That was the last straw, he dove at her in an attempt to stop her from running anywhere but she just side stepped him, leaving him to land on the sidewalk. He landed on his partially-healed stomach wound, eliciting a pained yelp. Indigo rushed over to him and started rubbing his stomach.

"Ah, is the puppy gonna be okay?"

"That's it." He ignored the pain and got up, chasing her right on her heels.

She put a good distance between them before they had cleared the first block. The gap forced him to push harder. He hated losing, but the voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he would if he couldn't catch up. That feeling alone gave him a burst of energy that he needed.

Tawn slowly closed the gap between him and Indigo, tackling her to the ground after a few minutes.. "Who's the puppy now?"

She rolled over and pushed him off with ease. "Please Tawn, I just wanted to get you to waste some of your energy and get you to come to the lot."

"What?" He looked up and saw that they were in the vacant lot she talked about.

It was a fairly wide area, covered in tall grass that was at least two feet high. It was surrounded on three sides by tall apartment buildings that were twice as wide as the lot. Off in the far right corner was a metal shed that looked like it had been there a while. Other than that, there were some old pieces of trash and a metal barrel or two just laying around.

Instead of getting up, she just laid on her back with her hands behind her head. "My parents bought this property a while ago but they found out it wasn't commercially viable for their business. That means we have this useless piece of land that nothing can or will be done about."

"So, this is where I will be training you to be a Huntsman. We can tear this place up without worry of consequences." She seemed so pleased with herself.

He just sat up and pulled his knees to his chest. "Indigo, I don't know if I want to be a Huntsman. I really feel like you guys are forcing this on me."

Sitting up, she leaned over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Tawn, if you don't want to then you don't have to. I just kinda assume that you'll want to because I did when I got the opportunity."

"Why are you a Huntress though?" The more he thought about it, the more he questioned why he would want to protect this world.

"I wanted to be a huntress because no matter how bad this world is it needs saving. Racism will always exist, bigotry will be around so long as there are people, bias will always be a factor in every opinion but no matter how bad it gets. We are all still good people and just need a push in the right direction. As a huntress I can be that push."

"You make it sound so whimsical." He asked laying back in the grass like her. "The sentiment is great but I don't think I can fight for the same reason. I've lived for myself for so long, I don't really feel the need to protect or further anyone else's cause."

"That's alright. Even if you find a selfish reason, it's still a good reason. A lot of people will try and tell you otherwise but a reason to be a hero is a good reason." She let a out a small laugh. "My squad leader, Leche, used to say his reason to fight was to be the best. He just wanted everyone to know they couldn't beat him."

"He sounds like a hothead." Tawn observed.

"Not really, he was actually a pretty happy guy who loved the heat of battle. More than that, he liked breaking his own limits and achieving higher levels of power. The hothead of the group was Mellony. Always getting into fights and very self conscious about her body, she was pretty easy to manipulate into a fight. I still remember, everytime she started a fight she would shout 'Banzai!' and attract the attention of everyone in a square mile."

"Did she win a lot of fights?" He asked, imagining someone who would go nuts and the slightest comment to take offense to.

"Um, not really. Well, she didn't win a lot of fights that were just with regular people but when you counted on her, she would have your back."

"How many people did you have on your team?"

"Four. Teams aren't that big, but you get close with the people you are stuck with."

"Do you still talk to them?"

"Oh, hey, do you have your scroll with you?" She asked, suspiciously changing the subject.

Tawn decided not to pry and reached into his pocket. "Yeah, haven't really gotten a chance to mess with it."

She swiped it out of his hand and started messing with it. "Hang on there is something you need to do before we can train… If you decide to be a Hunter that is."

"What?" He asked, glancing at her as she went through the settings.

"We gotta link this to your aura. That way, you can pay attention to how much you have and adjust your tactics accordingly. Alright, tap your thumb to the screen." She handed it back to him.

His thumb touched the screen and the scroll started making some strange sounds. The scroll lit up a darker orange color before finally settling back down. Then, in the lower right corner, a anonymous picture appeared with a bar right underneath it. It was about two thirds full and the two thirds was a yellow color.

"Oh, you're still low on aura. I should say that I'm not surprised, considering what you went through, but most people I know usually would have filled back up by this point." She stood up from her spot and held her hand to him. "C'mon, let's head over to the shed and get some of the tools out to start work."

He didn't take her hand and just closed his eyes. "Indigo, really, do I have to restate everything we've been through today? I'm not feeling up to it."

"C'mon, all I need you to do is dig a hole." She said, kicking him in the foot.

"Aren't ferrets supposed to be lazy like twenty hours out of the day? I'm pretty sure that you exceeded your daily four hours of activity."

"Haha, look who's making the animal jokes now. Alright, I'll let you rest. Puppies need their sleep, after all."

"Thanks for being accepting of my people's plight." He said, rolling over to sleep.

Instead of going and doing the work herself, she just laid back down right next to him. "Yeah, I guess we can just do all that stuff tomorrow."

They both laid there for a little bit in silence and Tawn enjoyed it for what it was worth. Just a second to lay back without worrying about getting to work. The heat was just right and that was a godsend since most summers in Vale were hot as the fires of hell. He needed this after the day he just had.

After a few great moments of silence, Indigo's scroll started ringing. "Hello… Nah, we were just going to the vacant lot… Oh, you got me. I'm having a secret affair with a fourteen year old. The truth is that you just aren't as good in bed as him… Are… Are you crying?"

She looked over at Tawn with a worried and confused look on her face.

"Okay, wanna grab the car and pick us up?... Alright, we'll see you soon." She hung up and put the scroll back in her pocket. "Oh my god, he is taking everything way too seriously."

Tawn sat up next to her and crossed his legs. "What do you mean? Was that Snow?"

"Yeah, he's not too happy about you living with us right now. We've been having a lot of fights lately and just mentioning you were part dog was like throwing a viper in his pants."

He looked down at his feet before the torn and dysfunctional state of his shoes made him look back up. "What have you been fighting about?"

"Will we, won't we stuff. Things that you shouldn't need to worry about at your age. I mean, seriously, he has been asking me what would I think about getting married. I'm not ready to put my life on hold for a year to plan a wedding. Oh, and lets not forget kids. He just has to keep telling me about how he really wishes he could have a son or daughter and I'm just like… Argh, I don't even really want kids."

"Why not?" He sat up on his side and looked over at her.

"Because, kids are a commitment right off the bat. You can't leave them and go on an adventure. Undercover ops would become impossible if you have to stop by the daycare first. Its just not something I want right now." She put her hands out in front of her like she was getting fitted for handcuffs. "But no, he wants to put cuffs on me and lock me away. Take away my dreams so he can have his own."

"Why not dump him if he's being like this?" He asked, confused to why she was allowing this all to happen.

"Tawn, I still love him. Plus, for each thing I hate him for there are two things I love him for. Growing up sucks hard. Promise me you'll stay a kid forever, Tawn."

"I don't think I've been a kid since I was twelve years old." He said, thinking back to the night his dad died.

He hand snuck it's way into his and she squeezed it tightly. "Well, go ahead and be one again. I'll take care of you, Tawn. Just enjoy your life for what it is, okay?"

"Where do I even start though?" He laid back down and held her hand.

"Well, run around and fall down. Make some mistakes and get into a fight or two. Just don't get a girl knocked up or else I'll have to neuter you." She was pretty pleased with the last part.

"Don't worry about that. Not like any girls gonna want little ol' gutter dweller to keep them warm at night."

There was a honk from the road and Indigo shot up, pulling Tawn with her. "Alright, Snow's here. Can you please try to get along with him? If not for your own sake then mine."

"I'll try but he's gotta meet me halfway." They both walked over to the car and got in.

"Well, either you two are ghosts or can teleport because one second you are headed outside, the next you are telling me you're at the lot, nine blocks away." He said, making a half-assed attempt at a joke.

"Hehehe, actually, she made fun of me enough that I charged her in blind rage." Tawn said, getting in the back of the car. "If I decide to be a Huntsman, she said that this will be where we train."

"If you need help, I do know a lot about hand to hand combat." Snow offered.

Tawn looked over at him with eyebrow raised. "Are you good?"

"Yeah, I was on the boxing team back in school." He started driving the car. "I could probably show you the ropes so you don't get into too much trouble if you lose your weapon."

"Weapon? Who said anything about a weapon?" Tawn scratched his head. Nobody had told him about a weapon.

Indigo cut him off there. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tawn, don't worry about it until you've decided if you want to be a Hunter. After that, we can figure out how to go about training you."

Tawn looked out the window with Indigo's words ringing in his ears. This could be his chance to have a dream, to be something more than a ghost just coasting through life. All he had to do was decide if he wanted to or not. The decision was completely up to him but there was still something keeping him from making the leap. Part of him wanted to believe that it was his lack of reason but deeper in his heart, he knew it was his mother.

 **Hey y'all, back again for another post and this time I don't have to worry about running off to work right before the post. So, lets see how last chapter did with your reactions… WHAT!? Indigo… and Tawn… That's just… I can't even. This just rustles my jimmies bad guys. Their friends and she is like seven years older than him. Plus… I mean I guess you didn't know about Snow until now so I can't count that as a sin but come on. It's like people are prone to shipping the first two characters that can sex. (Mind you he is a minor)**

 **I know I'm giving you shit but that's because I saw no romantic feels between these two characters when I wrote it, Toothless. If you can show me the context that you were looking at it in, I will apologize. Seriously, I'm curious how you came to that conclusion.**

 **Update (After original posting): Hey guys, I just wanted to put a quick shout out here for anyone coming to read this. Trebor117, one of my friends from a different fandom, contacted me today and told me that Harrow to Zion is one of the suggested fics under the RWBY Fan Fiction entry on TV Tropes. I don't know which of my readers did it but thank you, whoever decided that this story was good enough to be one of the fan fiction people should start with. I don't really know if I deserve that but I promise to do my best with this story and keep the quality a lot higher than my usual standard. Hell, I might bump it up even more to make sure it keeps getting better so it earns it's spot. Thank you suggester and thank you Trebor.**


	5. Personal Space Invader

Sweat poured down Tawn's neck as he walked around the vacant lot, swinging the old-fashioned weed wacker back and forth. Indigo had told him that he had to do chores in order to keep up living with them. He didn't mind it, he was getting a free house and meals so it was only fair that he had to earn his keep. The only thing he regretted was deciding to go out and start trimming down the vacant lot only two days after moving in.

It was probably the hottest day of the year and he was just powering through it. Luckily, he found a washtub sitting in with the trash that was moderately clean. All he had to do was fill the tub with water and if it got too hot he would just take a dunk into the water. Just thinking about it prompted him to drop the weed wacker and head over to the tub.

He removed his shirt and pants before hopping into the water and just letting himself cool off. Living in a new place now and not having to work in fields was nice for a change. Four years of working nine to five in dead end jobs had taken its toll on him. It was nice to have a to have a change of pace finally. Even if it was just for a couple years.

He laid back in his tub and put his feet up for a good long rest, telling himself that he would get back to work in half an hour. "Ah, this is nice."

A smell drifted by Tawn's nose that held an aroma sweeter than anything he had ever smelled before. It made him relax easily and his face got really hot, like he was blushing. Something else happened too, his heart felt like it was pumping faster and there were butterflies in his stomach. Instead of fighting it, he just closed his eyes and laid back right into a shadow.

There were no trees around and the sun was directly up in the air so there shouldn't have been a shadow around him. He opened his eyes and was looking straight up into the face of someone with big purple eyes. The sudden appearance made him jump to the other side of the tub, across from the person.

One look at her was all he needed to know it was a girl. "Hey, I haven't seen you around."

He brought his legs up, realizing that there was a girl seeing him in his underwear. "Yeah, I'm new."

"Cool, my name is Rosa. What's yours?" She asked, standing up and showing Tawn she was in a white sundress.

"Uh, my name is Tang… I mean… It's… I… I think I just forgot my own name." He said, reaching up to his head wondering why it was spinning.

"Don't worry, it happens a lot where people meet me." She pushed her red hair back and over her left ear. "Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable. I don't get to meet a lot of new people."

He rubbed his eyes with one hand. "No, no, it's cool. I'm Tawn. Well, my name is actually Tawny but please don't call me that."

She covered her mouth and stifled a laugh. "Nice to meet you."

"Alright, I know I have a girls name. Get it out of your system."

She just kept her smile and shook her head. "No, it's nice. I like the name Tawn. It fits you."

"Really, thanks, I guess… Rosa is a nice name too. What are you doing here?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head.

Her face got all serious and she met his eyes. "I came over here because… I was kinda wondering… if I could… touch… your… ears?"

"My ears?" He grabbed his human ear on the side of his head. "Guessing you aren't talking about these ones."

She shook her head again, and brought her smile back. "Nope."

Heat filled his face again and he leaned his head forward. "Um, I don't really think that's a good idea."

"Why's that?" She asked, confused by his refusal.

"Well, it's just… they're my ears. How would you like it if I came up to you randomly and asked if I could touch something of yours?" He asked, grabbing his shirt from the ground.

"What are you, a pervert?" She accused.

His head popped out of his collar to reveal his shocked face. "I'm not a pervert!"

She covered her chest and turned away from him. "Then why were you talking about touching something of mine?"

"I was comparing you asking me to touch my ears was like that. I wasn't saying I wanted to." He got out of the water and started putting his pants on. "Besides, you're the one that came creeping up on a guy trying to cool off on a hot day. How do I know you weren't a pervert and just trying to get a look at me in my underwear?"

Her posture got really straight and she turned around her face as red as a strawberry. "This isn't fair. All I wanted to do was touch your ears and you accuse me of being some sort of sicko. That's completely rude."

"... I'm the victim here. Quit trying to make me the bad guy." He said, though he still felt his face blushing.

"Fine, I'll stop. Just let me feel your ears." He saw a sly look in her eyes and chose to just accept it.

With a heavy sigh, he hung his head forward within her reach. "Alright, go ahead."

She reached up and too his left ear between her thumb and index finger before rubbing it. "Huh, it's really…"

He fought the urge to kick his leg as she scratched the base of his ear. "Really what? Like a dog's?"

"No, it's soft." She reached her other hand up and started messing with both ears. "This is fun. It's like I've got two strips of velvet to rub my fingers up and down."

It was starting to be too much and he pulled away. "Okay, I let you touch my ears. Now can you go?"

Feigning a being lost in thought, she put her hand to her face. "Nope."

"What else do you need? I let you touch my ears." He shot back, heading over to pick the weed wacker back up.

"Because, you're the strangest boy I've ever met." She said, putting on a cheery smile and following him.

All this did was prompt him to sigh before getting back to work. He was halfway already and he could get it done in less than half an hour if he put his mind to it. Just as he started to chop the tall grass down again, he felt someone breathing down his neck. With a roll of his eyes, he turned around and saw that his face was dangerously close to Rosa's.

"How about just a little kiss? C'mon, you know you wanna." She said, closing her eyes with a very sweet smile on her face.

The smell from earlier filled Tawn's nostrils but he had no idea what she was talking about. "Um, can you please give me some space. I don't know what perfume you are using but it's making me dizzy."

Her eyes shot open and she looked at him with something that could have amounted to rage. "No, that's not how this works. You're supposed to jump me so I can call for help."

"Yeah, that's not happening." He turned around and started moving through the yard, knocking down the tall grass. "I may be a faunus but I'm not an animal."

"That's not- Stop working and look at me!" He put the weed wacker's head on the ground before leaning on it. "There. Now, how the hell are you not going nuts about me? I'm hitting you with my semblance, I've got a nice dress, and I look like insanely hot right now."

"Yeah, I guess you do." He answered, scratching his head. "What the heck do you mean though that you are hitting me with your semblance?"

"It's just... Nevermind." She turned to start walking away but stopped a few feet away. "You okay if I hang around for a bit?"

"It's a free kingdom. Hell, I would be chilling here in my box if I knew it existed a while ago." He went back to whacking the weeds.

"You lived in a box?!" She asked, over the sound of the weed wacker.

"I'll talk to you about it later. Give me a bit to finish the rest of this yard up." He pushed on through the day and kept hoping that Rosa would leave before he was done.

It took him a good forty-five minutes to finish whacking the weeds and once he was done with that, he had to rake all the excess together. Eventually, he had a nice pile of grass that was stuffed into a can for trash day. The whole ordeal took him a good two more hours to complete but once he was finally done, he turned to see Rosa was still there.

"Geez, somebody's one hell of a worker bee." She pointed, looking around the lawn.

He wiped the sweat from his bangs and looked at her. "Well, I would have taken a break in between finishing cutting it all down and raking it, but there is this really annoying girl here that made it awkward the last time."

"Okay, fair enough." She put her arms behind her back and got really close to Tawn. "So, what's with the gash on your head?"

His hand reached up and he found that she had brushed his bangs to the side giving her a full view of the mark. "I... don't remember."

She moved closer to him and kept looking at it. "Yeah, the freshness of this cut begs to differ."

"It's kinda a personal thing. Lets leave it at that." He said, pushing her away. "And there is another personal thing. Space... Kinda enjoy having mine."

She backed away with her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'll stop getting up in your business. So, want to go do something since you're done?"

He opened his mouth to object but the way this girl had been, he didn't really see her taking no as a viable answer. "Alright, I got done what I promised today. What do you have in mind?"

She smiled and grabbed him by the hand. "Alright, first you are gonna need a hat."

He pulled away from her and didn't move in the least. "Last time someone said that to me, it was go to a place that doesn't allow faunus."

"Yeah, that's because the place I want to go is one of those places…" She answered, rubbing the back of her head.

He put his hands on his sides and looked at the ground. "Okay, well, just go without me."

"Oh, c'mon. It'll be fun." She begged, taking him by the hand gently. "It'll be awkward if I don't have someone with me."

"Why me though? You just show up here, make me let you touch my ears. Also, what was will that whole seducing thing? I don't think you understand how confusing you are being right now." He scratched his head and thinking about it.

"I just want to have fun and sometimes that means messing with people and making them go a little nuts. Is that so bad?" She asked, putting her finger to her mouth in an attempt to make a cute look.

"Yes, that's manipulative and emotionally abusive. Why would you want to do something like this? Do you think the people you manipulate are your friends? Do you believe that there is something about them that you now have full control of?" He started walking away from her toward his new home. "Count me out of this _fun_ you are so keen on having."

"Don't you walk away from me!" She screamed at him.

"Give me a reason not to instead of more reasons to keep walking." He shot, done with her shit.

She closed her eyes and looked at the ground. "Because er dernk herva edny rends…"

"What?" He asked, surprised that she was so quiet he couldn't hear her words.

"Because, I don't have any friends…" She looked him right in the eye.

"How is that my problem? I have one friend, not like I have any to give you." he said, crossing his arms.

"But you can be one yourself." She said, looking at him with big eyes. This time, he noticed a lack of that smell she was emitting earlier.

Her last words made an awkward pause work it's way in and the two of them both looked at each other the entire time. "Alright, but we start from the beginning. I'm Tawn."

She put her hand out to shake. "I'm Rosa Valentina."

He took her hand and shook it, though she made a disgusted look as he did. "What's the matter?"

"Well, I wasn't really expecting your hands to be so gooey." She pulled her hand away and showed that it was covered in mud.

At a glance, he knew his own hands were the same since he didn't wear glove while working. "Sorry about that. I guess I should wash them next time I meet somebody."

"So, what are you gonna do today, now that you're done with the lawn?" She asked, walking past him with her hands behind her.

"A shower, I guess. Indigo told me that everyone has to take those at least once a day." He thought out loud.

"Alright, let's go to your place then." She said, walking over to him and slipping an arm under his.

He shrugged it off and started walking to the house with Rosa in tow. "Just so you know. My sponsor is named Indigo. She is pretty cool and is letting me live with her for now."

"Why for now? What do you gotta keep that lot spick and span?" She asked, looping her arm under Tawn's again.

He was starting to really get sick of the constant need to touch him and pulled his arm away again. "No, she is just helping me. Actually, she said that she would help me become a huntsman. That's only if I want to though."

"Wait, you're telling me that you can be a huntsman? That's awesome! Oh, you should totally try and get into my class! We can hang out and have lunch and you can be my- friend! Just friend." Things got quiet between the two of them and he kept walking forward with things definitely becoming apparent to him now.

"Can you please stop?" He asked, crossing his arms so she couldn't grab at them.

"Stop what?" She asked innocently.

"This whole 'crushing' attitude you are putting on." He looked down at the sidewalk as they continued. "It's uncomfortable."

"Okay, I'm sorry. It's a force of habit." She said, stepping away from him. "But seriously, it would be awesome if you came to Signal with me. We could do so much together."

"That's probably not going to happen. I don't know if I want to."

"Oh, c'mon. Signal is great. Everyone is really cool and-"

"I mean I don't know if I want to be a huntsman." He didn't bring his eyes up from the ground and held his arms tighter.

His response made Rosa giggle. "Why wouldn't you want to be a hero? It's an honor and a privilege that not many people can't rise to. It's like, the only way to live anymore."

The way she said the last part made Tawn a bit curious because she said it almost whimsically. "Why is it to only way to live?"

"Being anything else but a huntsman is like social suicide. Most jobs are boring as hell, you are always meeting new people and not worrying about reputations, and it's a way to get away from everything that's held you down." She spun on her toes when she told him about it, almost falling over in the process. "It's a fantastic adventure to be one and an even greater adventure once you are."

"I still don't know. It's safe and stable to be a regular worker. I've never had that and it seems like being a huntsman doesn't coincide with that." The two of them kept walking for a few minutes without saying a word.

The entire time, Rosa was chewing on her lip and when she finally stopped you could see the teeth prints. "Well, if that's the life you want to live. Why not just live it?"

"Because I don't know if it will make me happy. I wish someone could tell me what it's like on both sides instead of how awesome being a huntsman would be." He put his hands in his pockets and kept walking.

They stopped talking all together and walked in silence for the next block. _Why is this girl following me around? What if that guy from the Ranger's house sent her to watch me?_ He glanced looking for one of the guys from the house out of fear. _No, if she was sent by them to watch me then they wouldn't be here. Am I just psyching myself out?_

He took another glance back at Rosa and all his worry died a little. _She was kinda cute in an annoyingly narcissistic way and… What the hell?_ He took a whiff of the air again to see if she was doing her whole smell emotion thing but there was nothing. He pushed the thought out of his head just in time to arrive at Indigo's house,

"Well, welcome to my home." He said, walking down the sidewalk to the front door.

"Oh, it's nice." The sentiment was there but he could tell she was expecting something different.

He shrugged and pulled the key out of his pocket. "It's a great place. Like I said, Indigo-"

Something cut him off as it slammed into his back with enough force to carry him half way into the yard. "You brought home a girl!"

Tawn pushed himself over so that he was laying on his back and looking up at Indigo. "Yeah, this is Rosa. She's-"

"Oh, I know who she is." Indigo waved at Rosa real quick before leaning down and whispering into Tawn's ear. "Don't screw this up."

"Don't screw what up?" He asked, trying to sit up.

She pushed him back down and looked at Rosa. "Hey sweetie, I'm Indigo, Tawn's guardian."

Her hand went up to shake Rosa's but the stunned girl was too busy staring at Indigo. "You just pounced on him…"

Indigo looked down at Tawn and then stood up while brushing herself off. "Yeah, I was really bored today so I got a little excited when I heard you guys at the door."

"Wha… Bu… You…" Rosa's face got really red and she laughed a bit awkwardly. "My name is Rosa. I'm Tawn's new friend."

Indigo glanced down at Tawn with a knowing smile before walking over and whispering something in Rosa's ear.

He sat up from where she tackled him and just sighed. "I got the lot done or at least what I can get done today in this heat."

"Yeah, was that before or after Rosa saw you naked in a washtub?" She asked, giving a sly grin to Tawn.

"Hey, I wasn't naked. I had underwear on." He stood up and headed for the house. "It's not like I was expecting anyone to come walking up and look at me anyway. I was just trying to beat the heat."

She didn't pay that much mind and walked into the house. "Alright guys. C'mon in. I was just about to make some ramen."

Rosa hung out by the door until Tawn finally got up to talk in. "You can go home if things have gotten too weird."

"Weird?" She thought to herself before looking at Tawn again and growing a small smile. "No way, this has to be an average day for you so it can't be weird. It's fun."

Instead of heading inside, Tawn leaned on the door frame and looked at Rosa. "Glad you enjoy it. You actually want to come in or do you have places to be?"

"Well, I gotta see your room before I go. Not every day I get welcomed into a boys house." She walked inside and into the hallway. "Most people's moms throw me out before I get three steps in."

"Can't imagine why." Tawn said following her in. "My room is the first door on the right."

He stepped into the hall in time to see her heading into his room and shutting the door. His eyebrow raised and he walked toward the door expecting her to come out with something of his. Nothing happened though and he just hung outside his door staring at the nob for a couple seconds. Without any more caution, he opened the door and saw Rosa was just looking around his room casually.

"Why'd you close the door?" He asked, leaving it open behind him.

She just shrugged. "Sorry, force of habit. Your room is… cozy."

He walked over to the small dresser and fished out his other shirt and pants. "Well, it is nine by nine and has a queen size bed. Cozy is giving it too much credit."

"Would you want something bigger?" She asked, taking a seat on his bed to face away from him.

He thought about it for a minute but ended up shaking his head. "No, I like its size. Definitely more than I had."

She just gave him another cute smile. "Then I think it's perfect."

"Alright, well, I'm gonna go take a shower." He walked over to the door and opened it to have Indigo fall down with an empty glass in her hand.

She had a smile that told him that she knew she was caught. "Hey, I was just…" Her eyes shot to his clothes and a smirk came across her face. "I came by to tell you that we are gonna go shopping!"

"Why would we do that?"

She snatched the clothes from his hand and walked out of his room. "Because I can't let your girlfriend be with someone wearing these."

"Girlfriend!? I just met her!" He took his clothes back before taking a look at them. "But… I could use some new clothes."

"Good, now grab your stuff and let's go. Rosa, you wanna come along?" Indigo asked, wrapping one of her arms around Tawn's neck. She was hugging him so tight that he could hardly breath and not speak.

Rosa stood up and shook her head. "Nah, I better get home before my parents get worried."

"You want me to drop you off on the way?" Indigo asked, pointing to the door.

"No! I mean, no I need the fresh air." She walked past the two of them and started for the door. "Tawn, would you mind walking me to the end of the block?"

Indigo let go of his neck and pushed him forward. "Sure he wouldn't."

Tawn got moving and followed Rosa to the end of the block. "Why did you want me to walk you to here?"

She shrugged and looked at gave a little smirk. "I just wanted to say goodbye without Indigo around."

"Okay", he put his hand out to shake hers, "see you later."

"You are kinda an idiot, aren't you?" She asked rhetorically, pushing his hand out of the way and enveloping him in a hug.

His instincts took over and he pushed her away. "Hey, I'm not an idiot."

Her smile became sly like she knew something he didn't but instead of a reveal, she just turned and walked across the street. "See you later, Tawn. Oh, and while you are shopping, get a fedora."

He shrugged off her comment and started back to the house, wondering what was up with this new girl and why she was so friendly. There was a small part of him that liked how Rosa acted toward him. Another part of him just kept going back to his mother's stern looks everytime Rosa did something weird like hug him. It was almost like his head was telling him that he is going to ruin everyone's life like he did hers.

 **Okay, gonna start this time out with an apology to Toothless. I was just horsing around dude. I'm sorry for how assholish that came off as. If I can ship White Knight then you can totally ship… I don't know. Whatever you would call Tawn/Indigo… Maybe Blue Lightning? Anyway, on to review acknowledgement.**

 **Ghuuunt: Directly after you say I'm not flooding you with characters, two new ones one chapter after another.**

 **thejoker: That would make this story predictable and kinda cliche don't you think?**

 **Toothless: Go ahead and talk about it and don't be sorry. You ship has some wind in its sails but there is only room for one port cannon.**

 **Dairegh: He'll learn though I like him adorkable.**


	6. Bitter Rival Meet, A Spark Ignites

Tawn looked out the window of the car, the thought of his mother really hating him still stewing in his mind. Someone who he trusted to keep him safe and love him no matter what he did harbored resentment. Just thinking back, he remembered seeing a look in her eyes, even when she smiled at him it was there. A look of hate and anger for what he had taken away from her.

Now, in a twist of fate, he was being offered the opportunity that she lost out on. Everytime he started to think that maybe it was a good idea, her voice would whisper in his ear. It would tell him that he wasn't worthy of the pitty that Indigo was showing him or that Ozpin really had no faith in his abilities and was just talking him up. Worst of all, it talked about how everyone he'd meet would look at him with her eyes.

"Tawn?"

He looked down at his hands and then back down the road. "Why are you helping me?"

"Ah, that's what it is." Indigo said, like she knew the entire situation at hand.

"What?"

"Tawn, you feel like crap after what Ozpin told you. I can tell, and you're nervous - or worried - that he was right, aren't you?. Next thing you know, you will be telling yourself that you have to be something great to make up for everything. But you don't." She pulled the car over and pulled Tawn into a hug. "All you gotta be is you, Tawn. Nobody more and nobody less."

He struggled a bit in her grasp. "Um… Did… Did you just go all psychiatrist on me or something? Why am I suddenly feeling a lot better."

"Shush, I'm transmitting your brain happy thoughts." She squeezed him tighter.

"And that explains why I'm thinking of running through tubes now. Okay, I think you need to let go." He said, forcing her to pull away.

"What's wrong?" She asked, folding her hands in her lap, ready to listen.

"Can't you just do that mind thing and figure it out." He asked, looking back out the window.

"I can, but it's obvious that you don't find that appealing. So, why not use your words."

He took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. "Can we just keep going?"

"We're already here." She laughed, pointing out the window to a store. "I brought you here to get some new clothes! Just wait, we are gonna pick you out some new outfits then we'll get you all set up. Oh, I can just imagine it, you'll be so kawaii and all the girls will be all over you."

"Clothes, kawaii, and girls? What?" He said, as she got out of the car.

"C'mon, it'll be fun." Indigo suggested, forcing him out of the car.

The store stretched up several flights in front of them but still kept itself fairly in line with the rest of the building around them. The inside was a daunting three story building with an open center and escalators leading everywhere. Each floor had it's own labeled area from the bottom being women's, second floor: children girls, third floor: children boys, and the top was mens.

"Let's head up to the top… actually make that third floor." Indigo directed, heading for one of the escalators with Tawn.

He followed her up the escalator though he wasn't really looking around for any clothes and just kinda thought to himself. They got to the children's second and Indigo began looking through what they had. She kept holding up different shirts with strange designs and band names on them but Tawn wasn't really into them.

"How about this one?" She asked, holding up one with a dog on it.

"Can we just get some plain white shirts and jeans? I don't really have a style, Indigo. You're kinda looking at everything I own in terms of clothes." He gestured to himself and his current outfit. Torn shorts and a shirt, both so faded that if anything had been on them they were gone now.

She nodded her head in understanding. "Alright, but are you sure you don't want anything else? Maybe a hat or a vest? Something to make you look less like a field worker?"

"Can we just get out of here? I just want to get home or anywhere where I can be alone." He said, crossing his arms.

She gave a nod and grabbed some jeans, a pack of white t-shirts and a belt. "Let's head to the checkout then."

He followed her to the stand but realized something. "Hey, I'll meet you at the car. I gotta go."

"Go where?" She asked, confused.

"You know, the bathroom." He said, blushing a bit.

She blushed awkwardly before waving him on. "Oh, well, yeah sounds like a plan."

Tawn took off into the store and began searching everywhere for the bathroom. He found it rather quickly since they were all in the back right corner of every floor. After a quick trip in, he came out and saw a girl adjusting clothes but at the same time keeping an eye on him. Ignoring her, he went on his merry way and back to one of the escalators, glancing back occasionally to see that she was following him.

She had orange shoulder length hair that made her green eyes stand out and easier to tell what she was looking at. Her outfit also helped her to stand out since it was green too, highlighting her hair even more.

On an ordinary day, he could have accepted her following as just another salesperson worried about a thieving faunus. Today wasn't ordinary and he began running situations in his brain about her. She could be one of that guy from Mr. Ranger's, Leech's clean up crew. Any second now, she would pin him behind something and just slice his throat to help cover his tracks.

He forced himself to be calm and started walking through the store casually. It didn't really help his cover that he'd gone into the girls floor on the escalator but he had to improvise. The lady was persistent through and tailed him like a hawk. Just when he thought he had lost her, she would be around the next corner addressing some issue with a clothing rack.

That was it, he was tired of running and trying to lose her so he walked right up to hre. "Why are you following me?"

She looked over at him feigning surprise. "Whatever do you mean, sir? I am just doing my daily duties."

"Did your daily duties include following me like some creepy stalker?" He asked, giving her a suspicious look.

"No, that wasn't what I was doing at all." She said, standing up to him.

Tawn wasn't expecting her to get into his face but that wasn't going to sway him. "Oh yeah, then what would you call it?"

"Theft protection. Do you know how my faunus have stolen from us?" She said, poking him in the chest.

"Oh, freaking wonderful. This place hires racists." He moved her hand away from his chest and started walking away.

"You say that but who was the one walking through a section that isn't even for his gender." She called as he walked away.

"I came to this section because I was trying to get away from you, lady." He just kept walking but she just kept following her. "I'm leaving okay. Leave me alone."

"Yeah, I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?" She wasn't letting him out of his sight.

He glanced back at her and looked at her name tag. "Look, Pumpkin, I've had a stressful day. Can you please just lay off me?"

"Sure, just as soon as you leave."

"Fine." He took off down the next escalator and went straight to Indigo's car. She was already in it and waiting for him so it wasn't long before they were back on the road. "Today, might be the worst day ever."

"I know today is stressful but-" She cut herself off and hit the brakes, stopping the line of traffic behind her. "That bi- socially confused person!"

She flipped a u-turn that almost caused a wreck and went right back toward the store. "What are you doing?!"

Her driving was furious as she sped down and back into the store's parking lot. "Get out of the car."

"Again, what?!" He asked but she was too busy with her own thing to catch Tawn up on her thinking.

Indigo grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back into the store and marched around like she was searching for something. Even inside the house when she was fighting Leech she didn't look as angry as she did now. It was pretty obvious why she was angry now that they were at the store again. She was looking for the girl that was stalking him.

One guy went walking but in a suit that looked akin to the employee uniforms. "There's the manager." She marched right up to him and started poking him in the chest. "Alright buster! You wanna tell me why you have been hiring racists here or do I have to beat it out of you?"

The man began to panic of a second but quickly recomposed himself. "What? Ma'am, I assure you that we only hire the best to represent our store. Whatever you are concerned about, I'm sure we can fix it in an instant."

"I just told you!" She poked him in the chest hard enough to make him stumble back. "One of your employees racially discriminated my friend. You wanna explain that away or are you gonna treat me like a person and punish the employee responsible for my distress?"

The man was definitely taken aback by the aggression Indigo was showing. "Alright, please, just step into my office and we can talk about this again."

"Fine, I'm expecting some serious ass kissing if you want to keep me as a customer." She stated, grabbing him by the collar and heading toward the registers.

Tawn started to follow her but the speed and ferocity that Indigo was exhibiting was terrifying enough. Even if he did go, all it would do is make him feel bad for the guy that Indigo was taking to the woodshed. Instead, he figured that his best bet was to look around at clothes to kill time.

As he explored, his stalker returned behind him though this time he didn't much care. It was starting to feel like all the women he had run into today were crazy. No, instead of this whole mess he had gotten into, he'd prefer to just go about his day and accept that he would be watched. After all, he was just some kid from the gutter like Snow said, chances are he would be one to steal something if he had a need for clothing and didn't have Indigo to pay for it.

Not long after he started looking, he noticed a big group of people entering the store. There looked to be twelve of them and at the center was someone about his age with a teal suit on. He didn't pay it much mind though and went to looking at jackets.

He just found a pretty decent yellow one with a short collar and a black stripe down both arms and across the shoulders. The feel of the material was nice too, it felt like some sort of water resistant cloth. This was the type of jacket that he would have killed for out in the streets.

Upon trying it on, he realized that the guy in the teal suit was standing across from him just watching him. "Uh, hey."

The guy grabbed his shades and lowered them so that Tawn could see his icy blue eyes. "Since when did this place allow mutts in?"

Everyone around the guy started laughing as if daring Tawn to retort. "Well, I…" The guy and his friends were intimidating but he fought through the shyness creeping up on him and stood his ground. "You must be pretty dim to need sunglasses indoors."

They all stared wide eyed at Tawn, evil smiles crossing their lips.

One of the guys right next to suit guy grabbed him by the shoulder and leaned in. "Kick his ass Eton."

He took off his shades and handed them to the guy that just talked. "Alright runt, this can go two ways." He stuck his foot out with some sort of designer shoes on them and pointed down. "Kiss my foot or we'll get to see how your face looks after my fist has kissed it."

Tawn looked down at the guy's fist, the metaphor that he was using just wasn't clicking. "Why does your fist want to kiss me?"

Eton dropped his smile for a raised eyebrow. "Uh, because you just insulted me by attempting to call me stupid."

"Does your fist hate you or something?" He scratched behind his right ear, trying to comprehend what he meant by a fist kissing a face.

"No, it's… I'm saying I'm gonna punch you in the face if you don't kiss my shoe!" Tawn felt kinda bad that he wasn't getting the guys threats until he realized the threats were directed at him.

"Oh." The distance between Tawn and the guy was just enough that there was no way that Eton could keep up with him if he just turned and bolted now. "Um, can you not?"

"Not what?" He was getting just as confused as Tawn was.

"You know, just not punch me. I'll just walk away and you don't do anything to hurt me. I'm sorry for what I said even though you came over and started making fun of me first." He suggested , hoping to diffuse the situation.

Eton got a sly smile and looked back at his friends for a second. "Yeah, sure. I mean, it's not like you started this. Go ahead, say your sorry and walk off."

"Alright, I'm sorry." Tawn chimed before turning to his left to walk away but his legs had no traction and he slipped, falling flat on his back.

Everyone started laughing at Tawn as he stumbled around on the ground now covered in a thin layer of ice. He planted his hands on the ground and started to push himself up but it happened again and his hand slipped out from under him and his jaw smashed on the ice. No matter how hard he tried, there was no way he could get off the ground. He finally gave up after two more attempts only to have a shoe start nudging against his face.

"Ah, did the puppy just realize he was standing on thin ice?" Eton laughed, prompting everyone around him to laugh too.

"Don't touch me." Tawn deadpanned, moving his head away from the foot.

He pushed his foot over Tawn's face, wiping whatever shit that was on it across his cheek. "Or what? You'll bark at me?"

Tawn had enough and tried to call on his semblance in an attempt to knock the guy back. It was only a couple seconds before he realized that Eton's shoes had a rubber sole to it. Unable to get up from the ground with Eton's shoe pressed against his cheek. No matter how he ordered or what he did, Tawn wasn't a boot kisser.

"Hey, short, scrawny and flamboyant!" Indigo's voice echoed through the store right before Eton went flying off to the right and pinned against one of the store's pillars. "Get away from the pup!"

The ice underneath Tawn started to melt away letting him get up. As he stood he saw that everyone around him was gawking at Indigo from where she stood, ten meters away with a shopping bag in hand. He looked back at Eton and saw he was pinned to the pillar by the collar of his shirt where her sai had pierced it.

"Damn Faunus! Can't take a real human on unless you outnumber him, can you?!" He called, wrenching on the sai to unpin himself.

Tawn stood up and looked at Eton, his fist curling in anger. Before he could take a step forward to deck Eton, a hand slipped over his arm and stopped him. He looked back and saw Indigo holding his hand and giving a subtle shake of her head. She looked around at everyone and her glare commanded them to be silent.

She looked around at all the kids and shook her head. "You all sicken me. You're the huntsmen of tomorrow. Not just some dumbasses with weapons. Act like heroes or at least good people. Seriously, what would have just happened if one of the Signal teacher were here. Would you have acted like this? How about if you knew a huntress was here?"

One of the guys started to raised his head from his hand to speak. "Sorry ma'am. If we would have known-"

"That's not an excuse!" She walked over and pulled her sai out of the pillar, freeing Eton. "You should never act like this. Be the heroes you are supposed to be. If this is who you really are, drop out now because you're not cut out to be a huntsman."

Eton stood up to her and scoffed. "Being a huntsman isn't about being a hero. It's about killing Grimm. The two don't intersect."

A firey passion ignited in Indigo's eyes and she looked at him with a stare would stop a goliath. "Bullshit!"

"Says the Faunus rodent!"

She walked up to Eton, stopping mere inches from his face. "You think *I'm* the rodent? I don't kick my opponents when they're down. I don't pick my targets because they're different. I pick my targets because they *deserve* it. Right now, I think me and Tawn are the only ones here that aren't rodents."

She turned around and started walking back to Tawn, stopping when she'd given Eton some space. "You think killing Grimm and being a _hero_ don't meet anywhere. Let me ask you something. Have any of you _ever_ been outside the walls? Out in the wilds, where people have to fend for themselves? Out there, they have _nothing_ between them and the Grimm. Nothing, except for Hunters. You might think, 'so what? It's still killing Grimm.' But it's not. See, when you go out to a village in the wilds, something I guarantee will happen while you're at Beacon, you'll understand my point. To those people, you're not humans. You're not Faunus. They couldn't give half a shit about you or your problems, because you are _gods_ to them. You are the light in their darkness, and they are thankful for it. Why do they look at you like that? Because hundreds of Huntsmen and Huntresses went before you, all of them showing that they were what people could aspire to be. And you _dare_ denigrate that; you _dare_ to say that a Huntsman 'just kills Grimm'... Normally, I'd be disgusted. Instead... instead I just feel sorry for you. Sorry that you don't realise what 'Hunter' means to people. It doesn't matter what you think it means... it means 'Hero' to thousands."

The kids around her lowered their heads but Eton still stood there, quiet with an icy gaze staring down Tawn. "Sounds like you rehearsed that speech a million times in the mirror. Do you have to tell yourself that so you can get over the reality of the situation?"

That last comment put Tawn over the edge with his anger. He had enough of Eton's bullshit both on his shoe and coming out of his mouth. It was the fact that his last comment was directed at Indigo's integrity that pushed him over the edge. If there was one thing you don't do, it's challenge the woman that has an attack dog loyal to her.

"Shut your goddamn mouth." Tawn stepped forward right up so that he was right in front of Eton. "She's right. You should be better."

"Oh, yeah, and you're what? Her lap dog. If her reason is so great I'm sure yours must be just as good. C'mon little dog, show me a trick and announce to us all your reason to be a hunter."

Tawn hesitated, he didn't have a reason or at least he didn't think he did but something changed inside him. The way Eton had treated him, the lack of any respect from all the kids around him. Indigo got all of that and more since she was a huntress.

That was it, Tawn found his reason staring down this kid's icy glare. "I'm going to be a hunter to show everyone, including you, that I can. I'll be a hunter to show you all that you're not above us all just because your parents can pay for you to be what you want!"

Eton's glare focused in and he shook his head. "No matter how great you think you will be. I will never agree you are one. Trash is trash, no matter how you dress it up."

Indigo's hand went on his shoulder and started pulling him back toward the doors. "C'mon Tawn, let's get out of here."

As they left, all the kids went back to laughing like nothing happened, almost immediately forgetting Indigo's two of them got into the car and Tawn just smiled as they took off. He just found his reason to become a hunter or at least he thought he did.

He felt a hand land on his shoulder and give him a squeeze. "Hey, you okay?"

He looked at her with a happy smile across his face. "Yeah… I think I am. I… found a reason."

"Are you sure it's your reason though? Do you think that this is good enough to drive you through the pain and anguish to come?" She asked, observing his face.

"Well, I won't know that until I'm tested." He smiled and began wiping his face with his t-shirt. "It's something at least. Plus, seeing your speech in there… I think, I wanna be a huntsman."

She nodded and sat back. "Okay…"

He finished wiping his face and she started up the car. "So, what's in the bag?"

She perked up and opened it wide. "The manager gave me fifty percent off an entire purchase so I got you some things to throw a little flare into your wardrobe."

She brought out a yellow bandanna, some back fingerless gloves, a few belts, an orange fedora, and a pair of blue pajamas with dog bones and bowls on them. "So, what do you think?"

He couldn't take his eyes off the pajamas. "Is… is this some kind of joke?"

She smiled and started the car up, setting all the stuff in Tawn's lap. "Ah, just enjoy that you have some pants to wear at night. Now you won't have to worry about sleepwalking in your underwear anymore."

"Why would I worry about sleepwalking?" He asked, picking up the fedora and putting it on.

She just winked at him and started driving down the road, leaving him to dread what she meant.

 **Alright, so sorry this chapter was late. There was… difficulties in development. Luckily, all of it was figured it out and here for your reading pleasure. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the story and let's get on with this and to the review.**

 **Toothless: Don't we all.**


	7. Childhood Nightmares Last so Long

"Tawn, you awake?" Indigo's soothing voice asked nudging him slightly.

Light flooded Tawn's eyes as he sat up to see his room was filled with light. "Indigo? What's going on?"

Indigo sat by his bedside moving his his hair away from his forehead and clearing his vision. "You ready to start your training?"

"What?" He pushed himself up out of bed and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on? Training?"

"You said you wanted to be a huntsman now, right?" She asked, almost like she was baiting him for something.

"Oh… Yeah, it's just… What time is it?" He looked over at the clock and almost lost his mind. "It's five-thirty am?! I just went to bed like three hours ago."

"Yeah, well, work starts at five. I let you sleep in today." She stood up and started pulling out clothes from his dresser, throwing a pair of workout shorts and a shirt at Tawn.

"Why at five? Isn't the whole point of this to make me a huntsman, not to kill me?"

"Oh, don't blow it out of proportion. You shouldn't have stayed up late last night if you didn't want to wake up like this." She joked, heading for the door. "We'll be heading out in five minutes so get dressed quick."

Tawn sat up and scratched his head trying to wake himself up. It was so early and he was a wuss when it came to sleep. He managed to wake himself up enough to get moving and that he did.

After getting his clothes on, he walked out of his room and to the front door to put on his shoes. Instead of his old and beaten boots, he saw a pair of tennis shoes that had a note on them. He sat down and picked up the note to read it.

 **Hey, measured your feet while you were asleep so I knew what size to get. Also, I threw out your boots. They smelled like a locker room filled with moldy cabbage. DX**

There was part of him that was thankful for Indigo and how nice she was being but the other part of him wanted to strangle her. Those were his boots, the only shoes he had for two years. Sure they were beaten up but at least they had sentimental value.

After getting the shoes on, he stepped outside and saw both Snow and Indigo waiting for him in their running gear. "This is a godless hour."

"That's the spirit!" Snow gave him a slap on the back, stepping down the stairs. "No gods here. Only a cat, a mutt, and a ferret… There is a joke in there somewhere."

"Ah, shut up ya' pussy." Indigo joked grabbing Tawn's hand and pulling him down the steps with them.

Snow coughed a bit but spoke between coughs. "I may be a pussy but I also was slamming yours pretty good last night."

Tawn stopped in horror of the image just put in his mind.

The ferret stopped and slapped Snow across the face. "Snow! Too much information in front of the minor!"

He rubbed his cheek, smiling to diffuse the tension. "Sorry, not used to him being here yet."

Indigo wrapped her arm around Tawn and headed toward the sidewalk. "C'mon Snow, let's keep the conversation on being a Hunter."

"Okay, so he'll ask you questions about risking your life and I'll just stay quiet and let you fill his brain with propaganda." He said, giving her a mock thumbs up.

"Propaganda? C'mon, I just want him get excited for his career path." She said, taking off and getting the two of them to pick up the pace.

"You say that, but all you're going to do is tell him how awesome it is. What about my side of the story?" He asked, letting out huffs of breath at every sentence.

"Okay, fine then." Indigo looked back at Tawn and pointed to Snow. "Guess he has something to tell you first."

Snow dropped back by Tawn and matched his pace. "I'm not a Huntsman, Tawn. I met Indigo while she was at Beacon. I'll be the first to admit that when I went there to visit her, it was breathtaking. Beacon is probably one of the most amazing places you will ever see and the atmosphere makes you feel like you can do anything."

"Then what's so bad about it?"

"It's not Beacon that's the bad part. It's what comes after." He let out a long breath and sucked a ton of air in, stoking a second wind. "Three nights a week, Indigo was called out to do a control action because Grimm would be trying to enter the city. Two of those nights would end with me picking her up from the hospital. The third, intensive care.. That was every week of the first three years. After that, she finally got promoted and got to go on undercover operations. On a good day, she only had minor lacerations."

Tawn's mouth got really dry at the thought of Indigo being that hurt and he gulped. "Is that true?"

"Yes, Tawn. It's true." Indigo said, keeping her pace ahead of them. "But that didn't stop me from doing it."

"No, it just left me sitting at home and worrying about whether or not the love of my life was gonna be brought back to me in a body bag." Snow didn't look at Indigo with hate, anger, or even annoyance. The look he stared at her was something that Tawn couldn't quite describe.

The way Snow looked at Indigo was like she was the most important thing in the world to him. He looked at her like she was the only thing keeping him going. No, that wasn't it, like she was the only thing that mattered to him.

"I made my choice when I started at Beacon, Snow. You said you accepted that when we started dating." Indigo said, stopping and turning to him.

Snow and Tawn both stopped and he looked over at Tawn. "I know, but I want him to know what it will be like if he ever gets a girlfriend… Or boyfriend. No judging, Tawn."

"He's not gay, Snow. Trust me, I catch him staring at me enough to prove that."

Tawn got really embarrassed and he covered his face unable to stop it from reddening. "Can we stop talking about all this for a bit? Please?"

He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and he moved two of his fingers to see Indigo was hugging him. "Look, Snow is worried about you and I should admit that I am too. I don't know if your reason for becoming a Huntsman is your own or if I pushed you into this and you took the first reason that came to your mind."

Tawn dropped his arms and looked at Snow who was standing with his hand on Indigo's shoulder with a worried look on his face. "Tawn, if you have a real fighting spirit… A fire that says you _need_ to do this. Then the two of us will be your biggest fans and help you to get there."

"But you just said-"

"I was informing you, not trying to dissuade you too much. The question is now, are you sure you want to do this?"

He rubs the back of his head thinking about Indigo's speech at the mall. How passionate she was about being a huntress and compared that to how he felt right now. Scared didn't describe the half of it, no he was insanely scared of what was to come. To say Snow scared him wasn't even the half of it. It wasn't that he didn't want to have someone worried about hit, it was that he didn't have anyone to be worried.

That thought rang through his head but started to be drowned out by something else. It was a sound that made his blood boil and his hands clench tight. All the laughter he had ever faced and the thought that he couldn't do something overpowered everything else. All together it formed a symphony of doubt that he could even become a huntsman. To top that off, his mother's face crowned it to make it even clearer that he wasn't welcome to what he wanted.

"I don't know…" Tawn answered looking at the ground. "There are so many things that feel against me. What if I fail?"

"What if you don't?" Snow answered Tawn's question with one of his own.

Tawn looked Snow in his red eyes and saw that they weren't joking. "I said, do you want to do this?"

"I don't believe I can…" He answered, biting his lip.

"What if I do?"

The boy's eyes grew in surprise. "What?"

"Tawn, I wanted you to know what it will be like for the other person. I never said that you weren't going to make it. In fact, I believe you can."

"But… Why do you believe in me?" His eyes darted to Indigo for a second and noticed that she was smiling.

"Because Tawn, we're a lot alike." The cat stood up and put his hands on his hips. "We are souls that are held down by life. We don't get happy endings unless we really work for them."

"So, you're going to help me?"

"I already told you that I would teach you how to box." He put his hands up in a defensive stance and smirked. "If you'll let me, that is."

Snow's promise to train him and confession to believing in him lit something inside Tawn. "Yeah, I want your help."

"Alright, then let's keep going." He said, standing up and nodding to Indigo. "Ready to keep running?"

"First one around the route gets to choose who makes breakfast." She said, taking off ahead of the two boys.

"Oh, crap!" The cat took off after her leaving Tawn in the dust to sprint and attempt to keep up.

He started sprinting to catch up to the two of them but was still a few paces behind. As they ran, he saw the two of them start messing around without even losing a step. Snow reached over and tagged Indigo with his hand pushing her slightly to get her attention.

Indigo looked at him with the devil in her eyes and she knocked into him with her shoulder before taking off ahead. He didn't let that slow him down though and grabbed her by the back of her shorts and pulled back. Her hands flew back and covered it so Tawn didn't see anything but she was forced to slow down and fall behind Snow.

"You bastard, I said no doing any of that stuff!"

"All's fair in love and breakfast, darling!" He called back, taking off as fast as he could go.

"Oh, that's the way you want to play it then?" She took off past him in a dead sprint that he quickly matched, leaving Tawn back in the dust.

"Wait… up?" He tried to call but they were gone before he could speak the end of the first word. "Ah, son of a bitch."

Tawn ran for about thirty minutes before he finally had to stop and lean on a nearby tree. He was definitely tired at this point and part of him bet that they turned a corner at some point instead of just running straight like he had been. in the midst of kicking himself, he took a seat by a tree and felt his eyes start to droop. It was so early and he felt so serene leaning against the tree. Without a real chance to fight it, he dozed off falling asleep where he sat.

Rain pelted Tawn's face as he stood his ground on top of the mountain. Everything he had trained for his entire life had lead to this. Back-breaking work and many blisters had forged his body into an armored chassis that could take any punishment and deal it back tenfold. He gripped the sword and shield tight. With what felt like the weight of the world on his shoulders, he marched toward the doors of the fortress. As he approached, the guards lining the walls kept their guns trained on him.

They didn't matter, though; through the doors were his friends, family, and love. Everything he held dear had been taken away, but he wouldn't let it stand for much longer. The doors were towering, but didn't daunt him in the least. This was it, the moment of truth. He raised his foot and kicked the doors where they met, swinging them both open; one hit the wall with a bang and bounced.

The corridor, a long carpeted path, was lined with the most heinous traps ever conceived: dog kennels. Each kennel held someone important to Tawn, from his mother to his best friend, Indigo. The face of his mother, vibrant and healthy, seem to not quite meet his own with its expression of regret, and brought about a nagging feeling of longing that was quickly snuffed out in favor of focusing on the current mission. Everyone was here to watch, which meant that the Dog Catcher was here as well. The limp dog ears on Tawn's head stood a bit higher as he took on an attack stance.

Tawn locked eyes with Him at the end of the path, brandishing a net and dog leash. "So, you've finally come, Tawn? Here to watch as I put your family to sleep forever?"

Tawn grasped the open front of his coat only to let his arms drop again. "Wait a second…"

The Catcher looked back and forth for a second, confused. "Uh, what?"

He looked around, almost hyper-aware of his surroundings. "This isn't… This isn't where I was."

"Of course it is." He raised his net to the ceiling and the ring grew ten times it's size. "Now prepare to be caught."

Tawn turned away from him and looked over at his mother. Her face was kind and worried as she looked onto him with worry. That immediately told him that this wasn't real. The sheer joy he felt to see her looking at him wasn't real.

He backed away from her kennel and noticed that her ears weren't even on the top of her head. "If only this was how you saw-"

Tawn got hit in the cheek hard and went flying across the room, losing the jacket he wore in the process.

"We aren't done,Tawn!" The Catcher flipped his net around and it transformed into a giant axe. "Now, get ready doggy. I'm about to put you to sleep."

Tawn ducked the axe swing and stood back up looking at the guy. "Shut the hell up. You're not real and you can't do anything to me."

He didn't stop moving and took another swing at Tawn, this time slashing his chest with the axe. "You don't get to decide what hurts you in here!"

The gash on his chest started leaking a copious amount of blood sending Tawn into a panic. "What the hell!? I feel this!"

The Catcher spun around and clocked him in the face, hard enough to send him into a wall. The pain, if this was a dream then why was he feeling so much pain. Worry crossed his mind as he thought that maybe he was literally killing himself. He had to fight or something; he couldn't just accept death as an outcome.

 _Or maybe I can… No one will miss me if I die right here._ Tawn started to close his eyes to hide from his impending death but something stopped him from fully closing them. That same force pushed him out of the hole in the wall and he stood up looking at the Catcher. All the pain was gone and a hand was on his shoulder.

He looked over and didn't see anyone there, yet he still felt a presence supporting him. It gave him confidence and told him that no one wanted to see him lose. Looking over from his shoulder, he saw Indigo in her own kennel with a look of determination in her eyes. A look he quickly reflected back at the Catcher. He reached to his back and pulled the sword and shield from it like he usually did.

"Hey, bastard!" He held his sword at the Catcher. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you. It's about to become a nightly ritual that I beat your ass!"

"Oh, will you now?" The Catcher's axe appeared in his hands, and he twisted it into a new mace-like shape.

The two charged at each other, weapons raised to attack.. Tawn's sword swung up, but the Catcher's mace came down in retort, blocking the move before it could do any damage. Sparks flew from their clash, illuminating the Catcher's face in a burning hellfire.. He twirled his mace around, swinging the handle at Tawn while using the ball as a counterweight.

Ducking beneath the Catcher's swing, Tawn spun around, slicing across the Catcher's chest.. "I'm done losing to you!"

The Catcher laughed at Tawn's attempt at bravado, only to further fuel the fire behind the pup's swings. Everyone was going to respect Tawn, starting with this monster from his dreams. His blade caught the Catcher's leg, slicing clean through it and silencing his mocking.

The Catcher's eyes widened as he dodged backwards, now short a leg. His hand twitched and his mace changed form again, this time into a huge scythe. If the kid gloves were on in this battle, they had certainly been shed now.

Tawn did not care what new weapons the Catcher could produce, so far beyond rational thought he was. In fact, he looked less like the pup everyone mocked and more like the rabid dog everyone feared. With a roar, he threw his sword at the Catcher, forcing him to deflect the blade before impact. This move left him open for Tawn to rush him, catching him in the face with an electrically-charged punch. The sheer force of the blow knocked him across the corridor, but he still managed to land more or less upright..

"No no no no no no no no no!" The Catcher turned his scythe around and leaped forward. "You've been my bitch since you were three years old!"

Tawn removed his shield, knocking the Catcher out of the air and pinning him to the ground by his shoulder. "No, I'm done being afraid of you."

The Catcher's weapon slipped from his grip with a thud, while he raised his free arm across his body. He coughed, each breath appearing to drain more of his strength than the last. "Stop… Don't… kill… me…"

"I'm not going to kill you." Tawn walked over to his sword, retrieving it from where it was knocked. "I'm just done being afraid of you."

He turned to face his foe only to find the Catcher had vanished, leaving Tawn's shield lodged in the floor. Collecting the shield as well, he slung them both across his back and looked around, a feeling of success washing over him. All of his fears - his old fears of being captured - seemed to have evaporated, just like the Catcher, freeing him to continue onwards.

Before he could relish his victory too much, a cold hand wrapped around the back of his neck, an equally-chilling voice manifesting in his ear. "Just because you beat the fears you had as a child does not mean you are going to beat those you have now."

Tawn's eyes shot open and he gasped for breath trying to take in what just happened. He reached over to his shoulder and where the hand hand been and found something. It was sticky note with writing on it.

 **Hey sleepy head,**

 **Falling asleep in the middle of a run is considered bad manners or if they aren't, I'm going to start. However, I know how hard you worked to keep up with Snow and I before we blew past you and left you in the dust. So, I've decided you only get a light punishment this time. Have fun walking without your new shoes.**

 **-Indigo :3**

Biting back a silent curse, he stood up onto the wet ground and sighed. Day one and he already was having a tough time even keeping his energy up for the day. He started walking back to the house, each step stinging with rocks and cold that his socks quickly took up. Still, his dream had made a difference in him. A little of his fear for the future melted away but Leech's shadow seemed a little darker now.

 **Sorry this is late guys, I recently got Metal Gear Solid 5 and that punched me in the face with inproductivity. Still, it's been a fun ride thus far and it gave me some ideas for this story, though nothing as ego stroking as what Kojima puts into his games. Anyway, I'll address the review from last week.**

 **Guest: I have a beta reader who understands grammar and punctuation way better than you do.**


	8. The Spark that Ignited the Blaze

Tawn sailed through the air and smashed into the cords of their boxing ring, blood flowing from his nose. "Ah hell, that hurt."

Snow dropped his arms and relaxed his fighting stance. "Sorry about that. You said you wanted to go full force."

He pushed himself off the ropes and wiped the blood with his arm. The amount of ass-kickery he'd been facing over the last month was off the charts. Sure, he agreed to participate in Snow's boxing lessons but he didn't like it. The guy was arrogant, elitist, and worst of all, a lot like Tawn when it came to fighting.

Snow tossed Tawn a towel and put his own on his neck. "Yeah, yeah I did. I wanna make progress fast, okay?"

"Tawn, you gotta fight with time and patience sometimes." Snow put up his hands in a boxing stance. "A fight isn't just about becoming the strongest, it's about two spirits clashing. You aren't trying to kill the other person. You're trying to show that your ideology, your mind, and your very being is stronger than them."

"Cool it, thundercat." Tawn said, calling Snow by the nickname he had heard Indigo use. "You've given your whole 'fighting-spirit-is-the-strongest-fighting-style' stuff before."

"That's because it's true, Tawn. Boxing isn't about just throwing punches. Here, how about we go again?" He said, walking over to his corner and grabbing his water bottle. "Only this time I want you to come at me with you ideals."

"My ideals?" His ears twitching a bit trying to think of what Snow was talking about.

"You ideals. You say you want to be a huntsman because you want to prove you can, right?"

"Well, yeah-" He was cut off as Snow hit him with a towel.

"Unless you beat me. You won't become a huntsman. I won't let Indigo even think about forking up the cash to do it. I'm what is standing between you and your dreams, Tawn. Show me you will overcome any obstacle to be a huntsman." Snow's hands were up and he was already moving his feet, ready to take the dog on.

Following his example, the faunus brought his hands up and moved in to meet Snow. His training began to kick in and he started bouncing back and forth on his feet. The movement felt almost as rhythmic as his heart beat now and he barely noticed it. Something held him back though and he couldn't bring himself forward to take on Snow.

 _Why am I doing this? Is trying to Eton wrong really worth taking a life threatening road?_ Snow wasn't going to wait for him to get reading and came in quick firing off a right jab aimed at Tawn's face. He blocked it with his arm and tried to catch him with a cross counter.

Snow wasn't having any of it though and caught the fist mid punch before throwing Tawn's arm to the side and punching him in the throat. "Gotta try better than a cross counter!"

He backed away, clutching his throat from the pain. "Something… better?… You've… only... taught me... the basics and… the cross."

"Use that as a baseboard to leap higher!" Snow ordered, moving back and forth and staying on his toes. "You're fighting me to prove that you're relevant in this world. Be a huntsman and fight with everything you have!"

Tawn brought his hands away from his throat, eyes still watering from the pain. Now, he wanted to hurt Snow like a dog wants to hunt a cat. A wild swing from Tawn caught Snow by the jaw and turned his head hard right. The hit was so hard that it knocked his mouth-piece out and sent it flying over to the feet of a wild eyed girl with a red bow in her hair.

"Rosa?" Tawn exclaimed, giving Snow the perfect opportunity to hit him with an uppercut. The force behind it was so strong that it lifted the dog into the air and sent him careening four feet back.

He laid there for a good few seconds before sitting up and sighing. "Damn it."

Looking across from him, Snow was smiling with a trickle of blood flowing down his chin and onto the ground. "Ya' did good, kid. Ya' did good."

"No, I didn't. I only got one punch in." Tawn said, standing up and taking the mouthguard out.

He shook his head and offered Tawn his hand. "No buddy, you got your own shot in. Hell you got the perfect hit in. All you gotta do is deep pushing that advantage when you have it… and don't get distracted by pretty girls." His eyes glanced over at Rosa. "Speaking of which, Rosa, how've you been?"

"I've been okay." She started walking around the mock fighting ring they put together. "I was actually kinda hoping Tawn would be done for the day soon."

Snow looked at Tawn and gave him a knowing smirk. "Yeah, he's out of here."

"Wait, what?" He asked, wiping his mouth to clear it of any blood. "I thought you said-"

"I know what I said, but you've also gotta have a social life or you won't survive at Beacon." Snow put his hand out and helped Tawn. "Plus you could use a break from getting your ass kicked."

Tawn shot him a glare but ended up nodding in agreement. "Fine, I'll go."

Rosa took him by the hand and gave him a soft smile right before his nose flooded with a sweet scent. It calmed him a bit and his heart slowed down from its adrenaline filled pace. The feeling of having his emotions manipulated annoyed him. He wouldn't make a big deal about it though since she did this often subconsciously.

"C'mon, let's go down to the boondocks." She suggested, already excited at the prospect.

He shrugged and followed her, though he wasn't sure of what he was doing. "I don't have any money to really do anything."

She squeezed his hand, as if to reassure him and pulled him along. "That's okay, I've got enough for us both to have fun."

"Wait a sec!" Snow walked up to Tawn with his hand out. "It's common decency to shake an opponent's hand after a match like that."

"A match where I got my ass beat?" Tawn asked, giving the hand a suspicious look. He was pretty sure there was something in it.

"Take the hand or it's gonna be thirty minutes of rhythm drills tomorrow." Snow said with an evil grin. Rhythm drills were where Tawn would have to bounce from foot to foot with his hands up to defend himself. Most of the time, he would do it to music and make him bounce to the beat. If he was feeling really evil, it was to some preppy pop music that anyone would be embarrassed to listen to, let alone workout to.

"Fine." He reached out and took Snow's hand, feeling a wad of paper get pressed into his.

His trainer then yanked him in so that he was at Tawn's ear. "It's bad manners and form for a guy to let a lady pay for him at any situation. Treat her like a princess, okay?"

Tawn jumped back in surprise and gripped his hand taking the paper in it. "What the hell was that?"

"Just some advice." He winked with the eye opposite of Rosa so she didn't notice. "Now, you two go have fun."

Rosa took his hand and started pulling him off toward the sidewalk. "C'mon Tawn, this'll be fun. Some of my friends might be there."

The moment she said that some of her friends might be there, Tawn felt like he dropped down into a hole. The weird thing was that, it was the idea of being with Rosa and around other people. Just as soon as the feeling came on, it left and Tawn was following her like a lost puppy. He had no idea what this Boomdox was in the slightest.

"So, what is the 'Boomdox' anyway?" He pulled his hand out of her grasp and continued to walk with her.

She looked at her hand with a slight sigh. "It's an arcade. I go there all the time to play video games and laser tag with my friends from school."

"What's laser tag?" He pictured a beam of light, bouncing around a room and pinging from person to person. "Sounds like a game you just can't win."

"Well, you get these guns and shoot each other with lasers to score points." that description only gave way to the image of science fiction style laser fights and wilhelm screams.

"But, Rosa, don't people get hurt doing that?" He felt stupid for asking his question but at the same time his curiosity was overpowering his common sense.

"No silly, it's just lights. Like people shooting each other with guns that fire laser pointers." Her new description was a lot easier to comprehend and it really showed how stupid he just was.

Tawn's face got really red when he realized his own foolishness. "Oh, okay… So, what are your friends like?"

"Well, there's Xahn and-" Rosa cut off when she ran into some big guys chest.

Instincts took over and Tawn pulled her back and looked at the two guys in front of him. He looked the strange men over and noticed they were both wearing really nice clothes that were teal colored. Very much like the group of kids he met a while a month ago when he found his reason. Besides the teal, their faces were a bit more well kempt than anyone on in the block so they couldn't have been from around Tawn's house.

One of the guys looked at Rosa and got a big smile. Like a snake, he slipped between the two of them and put his arm around her. His buddy followed him up by getting between Tawn and Rosa's creeper.

"Hey cutie, what's a nice face like that doing in a run down place like this?"

Tawn started to walk toward the man with his arm around Rosa but his buddy just put his hand out and wouldn't let him. The bastard got a twisted smile as he did, beckoning Tawn to take a swing and start something. It wasn't possible for him to beat the guy though. He was at least a full head taller than Tawn and had twice the muscle mass.

The dog faunus looked at Rosa with a pathetic stare, obviously telling her that he isn't able to stop them. Instead of rolling her eyes or glaring at him, she just gave him a wink. Then Rosa stood as straight as she could and pushed her chest out, making herself even more desirable. That's when a very sweet scent started to circle them and it was obvious to Tawn that she was using her semblance.

The two of them however, were left unaware and the one holding Tawn back couldn't take his eyes off Rosa. She then leaned onto the guy nearest to her with a soft sigh that would melt any heart. Her eyes looked at Tawn with a suggestive wink before her head turned to her assaulter.

"Hey, cutie, I'm up for anything with _one_ of the two of you. So who's it going to be?" She asked, leaning against him heavily and making the guy blush.

"Well, that'd be me." He proclaimed, wrapping his arms around her. "After all, my brother here doesn't make for polite conversation."

That statement brought the guy away from Tawn and over to his brother. He gripped the bastards shoulder and glared at him. The mere look made the talkative one back away from Rosa and let the silent one take her.

"Something tells me that you are a good listener, isn't that right?" Rosa asked with a giggle but then she turned back to the talking one. "Then again, sometimes I don't want to talk about myself and you seem like you'd be happy to tell me about yourself."

"That I would be. So why don't you work your pretty little self away from my brother and come and spend some time with me?" He flirted, putting his hand out to her.

His brother didn't like that though and glared at him before smacking the hand down. He then put Rosa behind him and stepped up to the talking brother making their difference in size comparable. The one that didn't speak had at least ten more pounds of muscle mass and about an inch on his twin. Though, the one that did speak looked a lot more refined and well kempt.

"Magenta, what are you doing you retard? Get out of the way." The talking one said, trying to get by his brother.

The silent one, now known as Magenta, shoved his brother back a couple steps with a glare on his face. The guy glared at him and was about to say something when his brothers fist connected and cut him off. The two just began going at it after that with practiced defense and attack. The more they fought, the more obvious it became that the two were close brothers.

Each knew the others weaknesses and strengths and tried to play against them. When Magenta would stop for a punch, the talkative one would use that as an excuse to unleash a barrage attack on him. The entire fight was amazing Tawn to the point that he didn't know what or how to react at all.

That was when Rosa took his hand and pulled him off, running at full speed. "C'mon, quickly before they realized that they're being played."

"Being played?" Tawn asked, following her down alley after alley.

"I used my semblance to manipulate their emotions and get them to fight each other. Couldn't you tell?" She asked, pulling Tawn to a stop behind a dumpster.

"I don't know, it's just kinda… What is your semblance again?" Tawn asked, just remembering that it had something to do with smells and nothing else.

She leaned on her knees, pulling her red dress down over them. "I can give off pheromones with my aura that inspire different emotions. You know, like how I tried to make you like me when we first met."

"Wait, so you just changed their mind into beating the shit out of each other?" Tawn asked, fearing what Rosa could possibly do with this ability. "Rosa, that's…"

"No, not control… I can… Nudge their minds in the direction that I need them to go in." Rosa explained, a bit of redness coming to her cheeks. "I mean, obviously you didn't move in the direction I wanted you to go."

"That's just… Wow, okay then." Tawn began pacing back and forth with an air of confusion."What… Why…. I don't know what to ask."

She walked back and leaned against the wall and twiddled her thumbs. All the while "Why not… ask why I wanted you to like me?"

"I don't… I mean it's just that… I don't think I wanna know that." Tawn told, backing away from her. "Seriously, you control minds, I mean all the twisted things that you could…"

"It's not like that!" Rosa commanded, raising her shaky voice at Tawn. "I just push in the direction I want. I can't make someone kill themselves. I can't make you do anything you wouldn't do. I just push toward the wants that parallel mine."

"And what would me have liking you accomplished? Would you have had me mow your lawn too? How about clean your room? What could you have accomplished by trying to get me to like you?"

"I… I wou… It's just that…" Tears started to drip from her eyes and she crossed her arms to huddle to herself. "I don't wanna tell you now."

His arms dropped to the side and he wondered why he never gave her semblance much thought before now. Rosa placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him but he shrugged it off and backed away from her. He backed far enough that he was out in the open of the alley where a large black shadow cast over him.

Tawn looked to the caster and saw the boy from before, Magenta, standing in the isle with his knocked out brother over his shoulder. Without any care, he tossed his brother off to the side and let his body slam into the ground with a loud thud. He then pointed to Tawn and then a thumb into his chest before bringing his hands up. It was obvious that he wanted to fight Tawn but the mutt didn't know if he could do it.

"Oh shit, Tawn just run. I'll take care of his guy." Rosa ordered, stepping between him and Magenta.

Butterflies hovered around in Tawn's stomach and he started to back away in fear. It was then that his mind split and he fought the urge to run. Part of him really wanted to run, it's what he was good at but another part of him fought against that. A tiny part, a part that told him that this wasn't how to do things. It was a part that was tired of running and tired of this coward routine that had taken his life over. It kept him alive till now but he already decided that this was no way to live.

That's when the voice had taken it's place as his drive and he stepped past Rosa. "No Rosa, this guy wants to fight then I'll fight him."

He slammed his fist into his palm getting himself pumped up before she grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him back. "Tawn, you've barely started your training. I've at least got three years of combat training at Signal. Just please, hang back."

Shrugging, he removed her hand from his shoulder and put his hands up. Talking was over rated now and it wasn't accomplishing anything. No, this guy was only going to understand Tawn's fists and the faunus was willing to let them communicate. As he moved closer, so did Magenta with his hands up and ready to go at it.

At the second movement, the two clashed and Magenta brought his fist forward but Tawn managed to dodge it. That's when the dog unleashed a double tap right into Magenta's stomach. The guy was ready for it though and brought his other arm down to block the shot before bringing his fist down on top of his ears and had Tawn seeing stars afterwards. It knocked him silly and he lost all concept depth.

That wasn't good, his instincts told him that he had to keep in close now. Magenta had reach and power on him but it was looking like Tawn had the speed. So, he stepped in and began assaulting Magenta as fast as he could. Landing one-two-three punched before dodging back with a smile on his face. He was doing good by his standards and something was giving him more energy and power than before.

It was Snow's advice, his mantra he kept saying when they trained. He was leaving everything in the ring and everything he felt was pushing every fist forward. Nothing was going to stop him and now.

Tawn's face held a big smile as he threw forward a wild haymaker that disappeared when Magenta caught it. The big guy just looked at Tawn with a smile on his face, showing that he was just toying with the dog. Tawn had made no headway at all in beating Magenta.

He shot Tawn's hopes and dreams down with a punch to the gut and two to the head. The poor boy ended up falling down and slamming his head into the nearby wall before blacking out. The last thing he saw was Rosa looking over him, screaming something. Whatever it was, he didn't know but he guessed it was probably calling him a failure.


	9. High Voltage

Tawn woke up to a pounding sensation in his temples that persisted, and didn't get any better when he exposed his eyes to the light. It took a second to adjust but once he did, a pink room stretched out in front of him with one wall of curtain. Everything was slightly off too; like it was a lot cleaner than anyplace he had been before.

"Where… where am I?" Tawn asked, hoping someone would hear him.

"Oh my god, he's awake!" Indigo's relieved voice came as she threw back the curtain around him. "Tawn, are you okay?"

"I got a splitting headache and… Did… Did I get punched out by a wall?" Tawn asked, reaching up and feeling an ice pack strapped to his head. "Ah, that's not good."

"Yeah, you really took a hit…" Rosa said, stepping out from behind Indigo. "I let the situation get way too out of control. If I could have gotten us just a little farther away then maybe we would have lost them."

"That guy…" Tawn sat back into what he knew was a pillow and thought about the recent events. Whoever that guy was, he had a killer right hook that Tawn didn't feel like he could defend against. "Why couldn't I do any damage? It was like I didn't hit him at all."

Indigo hung her head and sighed. "That's my fault. I forgot to teach you about aura and it's defensive capabilities."

"Defensive what's? I thought aura was the thing that let knock that guy across the room." He looked at the ceiling trying to figure out what she was talking about.

"Well; it is... but it also isn't and… Just you should know that… Bah, I can't just explain this without going into a ton of detail. Rosa, can you explain it?"

"Aura can be used like a force field." She said looking up and the ceiling in thought.

"Oh… How can I use mine like that then? What about my electricity? Is that an aura too?" Tawn asked, trying to wrap his head around everything that was going on.

"Calm down, okay? We've been neglecting teaching you the technicals because Snow and I thought that you needed to learn your basic limitations first." Indigo told Tawn, putting a hand on his forehead with a relaxed look on her face. "I'll make some calls and get a tutor from Beacon to help you out. That way, you can start learning some of the book stuff instead of just the physical stuff."

"What's a tutor?"

Rosa sighed and walked off only to come back with a dictionary in hand. She sat it down on Tawn's lap and gave it a pat. "There, just look up all these questions here."

Tawn looked down at the book in his lap and then at the others. "How about instead of this you show me how to use my aura shield thing so I don't get the shit beaten out of me again?"

Indigo sighed and put her hand on Tawn's shoulder. "Look, channeling aura into a shield is a risky and dangerous business. You can't let it falter in the last in any areas or you're not going to make it. I'll make sure you are trained but we are gonna do this correctly and not just put you through a crash course."

"Fine…" Tawn accepted, a sour look taking over his face as his eyes drifted to the ground.

"Tawn!" Snow called from the hallway with an outraged look on his face. Indigo acted first before he could get too close to Tawn and put him into a full nelson. The cat struggled against her grip to get close to the boy, almost rabidly.

"Get your shit and get ready because we aren't stopping training until you kick that mute bastard's ass!"

"Slow down there, flurry. Tawn has to rest first and get his strength back, or he's not going anywhere." Indigo commanded, refusing to let her boyfriend go in the slightest.

"Bah!" Snow struggled until Indigo finally let him go and headed over to look at Tawn. "Couldn't he just heal himself up with his aura? You said he did that before?"

"Yeah but that was directly after a fight when his blood was still pumping. It's second nature then so long as you're awake." Indigo grabbed Snow and pushed him away from Tawn before taking a seat on his bed. "Tawn, we actually have something we need to talk about. The doctor did some tests and… You're not regenerating aura."

Tawn looked at Indigo for a couple seconds and then around the room, waiting for someone to explain this to him. "And?"

"Well, you see… most people regenerate aura because it feeds on the passion of the spirit. Whenever someone gets low, they'll eventually recover that energy by resting. Your energy isn't though, the doctors… Well, their not sure what it is." Indigo further explained, putting a hand beside Tawn's head and pushing his hair back. Her brow wrinkled and her eyes grew large like she was trying to read Tawn herself.

He, on the other hand, wasn't sure how to feel about this information now that he had it. If he remembered correctly, then everyone that was a huntsman relied on their aura. Since this was the case, it had to be necessary to have in most situations. Slowly, his hand reached up and started tugging on one of his dog ears in thought as he tried to determine the best way to handle this.

"Well, my semblance is electricity. Maybe I need to like, stick my tongue in a power socket?" He thought outloud, trying to offer an explanation to this dilemma.

Indigo shook her head and started pushing his hair around, clearing his forehead of the strands. "It doesn't work like that, Tawn. Like I said, you get your energy through spirit not outside means. This isn't something the doctors have seen before and if you can't charge your aura then there is no becoming a huntsman."

Tawn looked down at his hands and thought to himself, trying to determine how he felt. It was a wave of relief that nobody would expect him to become something as great as a huntsman. The path so far had been difficult with all the exercise and Indigo's attempts to teach him. At the same time, there was this tinge in his stomach that bloomed outward. It started off quiet but as time went on, it grew louder and louder as it became clear it was laughter.

Hands clenched, the dog found himself getting angry in the moment. "Why?"

Indigo looked at the others and then back at him. "Uh, well, there is no reason for it. You just can't."

"No, I mean, why can't I become a huntsman?" He asked, looking to the others, perking his ears up.

"Well, you can't gain aura, and without it there would be no chance of you defeating any Grimm you came up against." She said, shooting Snow a look as he tried to step forward and speak.

"No, I don't need aura. I have a will to fight and that's all it takes." Tawn stated, looking to Snow and speaking the words that his trainer had drilled into his head. "If I don't have an aura then I'll figure something else out."

The ferret stood up from the bed and snapped her fingers at him, cutting him off from further speaking. "Stop that kinda talk right now, Sparky. I'm not now, nor will I ever let you risk your life like that!"

"You may be giving me this chance, but you're not my mom!" He said, turning away from Indigo and pulling the covers up over his head.

There was a silence after that followed by slow steps heading toward the door. "C'mon guys, Tawn needs some time to himself."

"We're just gonna let him-", Snow was quieted before he could fully speak and soon he heard Rosa follow behind them.

Ten or maybe twenty minutes passed before he felt like he could take the covers off his head. Once he was exposed to the world, tears rolled down his face and the reality of his situation really began to set in. He didn't even know if we wanted to be a huntsman until a month ago and now. It was like the moment he found something to cling on to it was taken away.

His eyes then began to drift down and lock onto a power outlet laying in the wall across from him. It broke out from the bright blue wallpaper with its white gleam, calling to him. The idea from before came back to him and he sat up to find something metal. There was a fork close by to his luck, on the top of a tray table that held an already eaten platter of food on it.

The dog sat up to take the fork in hand, looking at it like his key to salvation. Taking it in hand, he gently climbed off the bed and walked over to the power socket. With fork in hand, he looked at the socket and contemplated what he was about to do. If this didn't work, then everything in his life would just be settling for bare was no real reason to go on if he couldn't become a huntsman.

The fork inched forward. Tawn didn't not give any thought to if it failed. He stopped just short of shoving it in as the door swung open and Indigo stood there, looking at him with concern then it switched to fury.

"Tawn, what the hell are you doing!?" She leaped at him and he didn't give another thought.

He plunged the fork into the socket and everything paused for a moment. Indigo halted her leap and looked at him in stunned disbelief and horror. They both sat there for a couple seconds until Tawn let out a sigh and looked around hoping for something to have changed.

"Is… is it working?" He looked around, wondering how it was working.

"You… you're not being electrocuted." She observed, aw filling her eyes as she sank to her knees.

Looking around, the dog looked around without knowing how he should be feeling now. "I'm not… does that mean it's working."

The ferret slowly stood up and reached into her pocket. She retrieved a scroll and thumbed it on. After a few swipes, she looked up at Tawn with the color draining from her face and then back at the device. He took that as a bad sign and looked down, pulling the fork out of the socket with his head hung low.

The second the fork was free, Indigo shot forward and slapped him across the face. "You son-of-a-bitch! Don't you ever, ever do something that stupid again."

Tawn hung his head down low and looked at the ground, unable to raise his head at all. "I just wanted… I wanted to do it. I don't want to wait and see what happens. I want to figure out how to charge my aura."

She took him into her arms and hugged his head to her chest. "God, you're such a little trouble maker. Tawn, take a look."

A scroll pushed into his hand and he looked down at it, breathing a sigh of relief. His aura levels were in the green for the first time since he got the scroll. For just a moment, he felt like there was a chance that he could do anything but it faded as quick as it came. Everything up until now and for the foreseeable future was going to be a battle. Especially, if he was going to be having to recharge his semblance through power outlets from now on.

"What are we going to do now?" He asked, looked up at Indigo.

"Just relax Tawn, you don't need to be beating the shit out of yourself right now. We can figure things out later. Please, just go back to bed and don't do anything stupid for a little bit." She asked, bringing his down a bit and giving him an ever so soft kiss to the forehead.

"Alright, I'll be good."

...

It wasn't until the next day that Tawn was able to get information on his condition. In the morning, a nurse woke him up in his room and lead him through the maze of hallways to another room with a large machine in it. She then told him to wait there while she got the doctor and then left. He was still tired so he ended up just standing in the same place and stared at the machine.

It wasn't long after that the door opened and a doctor stepped in. He was a lot taller than most people and had a strange tattoo under his right eye that resembled two snakes winding a staff connected to his eye. The dog didn't know what to think of it since he was just waking up and instead stared at the doctor as he attempted to stabilize himself.

"Hello Tawn." The doctor said, pushing his green hair back as he seemed a little nervous. "I'm Doctor Brigid."

Tawn shook his head in an attempt to bring himself to alertness but only was able to yawn. "Hello doctor Birdjig. I'm Tawn."

"That's Brigid." He said, giving Tawn a smile and patting him on the head. "I'm the doctor whose received the privilege of working with you to find the limits of your aura."

"Oh, so what are you gonna do here?" He asked, rubbing his eyes as he felt himself start to come to.

The doctor stood up and ran a hand through his head before going over to the machine. "Well, we are going to try charging your aura and monitoring the effects on your vitals. With this, we're hoping to get your limits."

"My limits?" He asked, scratching one of his arm pits and yawning.

"Yeah, your limits. Like, how much electricity can you absorb and what might happen if you take in too much. Don't worry though, I'll be here to help you every step of the way." The doctor assured, poking Tawn on the nose and stepping to the side.

Tawn got a good look at the machine then and saw that it was a computer terminal next to a reclined chair. On the side of the chair, next to the terminal it had a series of braces that Tawn assumed he'd be putting his arm through. This was also true for the lower part of the chair with several braces for his leg as well.

The doctor patted the chair and then stood at the terminal ready to conduct tests. Tawn followed his direction and got into the chair with his arm and leg placed in the slots. As soon as he sat in it, his leg and arm were higher up than his off limbs so there was no finding a stable way to sit in the chair. This was made all the more evident as something within the braces started to expand, locking him in place.

"Uh, what's going on?" He asked, pushing himself up with his left arm so that his right limbs wouldn't be so uncomfortable.

The doctor began typing something on the computer and he saw some bars of different colors pop up. "I'm setting a baseline for your aura and vitals so we can see what happens once you start charging."

"Oh, so… what?" He asked again, tilting his head to the side.

The doctor looked at Tawn and gave him a smile. "I'm just checking how you are now before we start having you charge up."

"Oh okay." Tawn replied, now smiling himself and looking off to the side happily.

"Alright now that that's all done." The doctor turned to Tawn and gave a very serious look. "Okay Tawn, we are going into some dangerous ground here and I need you to be willing to tell me everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything you are about to feel from the slightest hint of pain to massive amounts. If something tickles or if it tingles. I need to know." He said, looking at Tawn intently.

"Alright." Tawn answered, for some reason unable to maintain eye contact with the doctor.

"Okay, I'm going to start dialing up the voltage. Starting with a hundred volts on 26 watts." As the doctor spoke, he typed something into the computer and it started making a loud whining sound.

Tawn didn't really feel anything and shrugged when it first started as it didn't seem like anything was happening. "Uh, I don't feel anything."

"Hm, okay, let's dial up the charge to 500 volts on 26 watts."

This time, after the doctor typed it in on his computer, the hair on the back of his neck stood straight up. "Okay, I think I feel something tickling."

The doctor began pressing the up key on his console and the bars started to wildly fluctuate up and down. It wasn't until he had pressed the botton twenty more times that Tawn felt something really start to happen. Electricity started jumping all over his body and his hands and feet began flexing. It was discomforting to say the least but it wasn't that bad, in fact he felt like he'd expirienced it before at some point.

The wave of deja vu ended there though as the doctor his the up key a few more times sending waves of electricity pulsing from the pup. "Ouch, ouch ouch. Okay that's too much. Please stop!"

The doctor started typing something on his terminal leaving Tawn to sit there and feel the pain. "Hang on Tawn, I need to run tests while your at this state!"

Something painful stabbed into his arm and his blood began to drain from inside the cuffs. Tawn freaked out from the pain and grabbed atthe cuff with his arm as instinct took over durring the pain. He didn't care how, he wanted the cuffs off now.

"Get it off! Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" He screamed, grabbing at it with all his strength but unable to do anything about it.

"Just a second more and… There." The doctor his a button on his console and whatever had stabbed into him receded away.

The boy sat there, gasping for air and pulling his arm and leg from the cuffs. The sheer pain he just went through was horrible and there was no way he was going to let it happen again. He threw himself out of the chair and stumbled away from the machine feeling much more lightheaded than before.

The doctor stood up with his hands out in a surrender pose. "Calm down, Tawn. I'm not going to hurt you anymore. I just needed to record your body's reaction to having extreme amounts of electricity subjected to it. I won't do it to you ever again."

Tawn started to shy away but then a familiar feeling washed over him, forcing him to stand up. "Damn right you're not."

There was a tingling sensation between his ears and the doctor stopped and pointed. "How did that just feel?"

The dog raised an eyebrow at the man and clutched his stabbed arm. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Your ears!" The doctor seemed to lose all sense of worry and ran over to Tawn. "Your ears just had a bolt of electricity jump between them! Did it feel strange at all? Were you hurt?"

The boy looked up at his dog ears and wiggled them a but wondering how that happened. "I did?"

Tawn raised his hands up and covered his ears in wonder. Everything was happening so fast and he needed a moment to just slow down and let everything simmer. Slowly, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm down.

"Okay, can we just take a break for a second? What just happened with the machine?" As he asked it, he pointed down at his arm and to where the needle went in.

The doctor looked at the pup's arm for a moment before throwing his own up in realization. "That's right, we just ran the test. We were using electricity that was forcibly charging you, to see how much you could take in and if you would stop yourself when you had too much."

Everything began to calm down and doctor Brigid lead him over to the terminal. "Let's take a look at the results here and see when we can find out then."

They looked at the screen and the doctor began flipping through different tabs. "Okay, what does it show?"

The doctor looked at them for a second before turning back to Tawn and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey buddy, this is going to take a bit longer to decipher and analyze along with the blood results. How about I have a nurse come and take you to your room?"

"What?" He asked, stepping back from the doctor with his head cocked. "You just stabbed me and hurt me for this stuff and now I can't even know what it says?"

The doctor let out a sigh and looked at the ground before looking Tawn in the eye. "Look Tawn, this is serious stuff and I don't want to just tell you everything is going to be okay and be wrong. Indigo called me in because I know a lot about aura and know how to take date from it. That being said, most of this is theoretical since aura, semblances and the like are less of a knowledge and more of guesswork. I'm sorry but this is going to have to be how it is. I'll take these readings home and look over them. Then, once I'm done, I will tell you what I've found."

"But this is everything right now. My entire future relies on the results you have." Tawn objected, trying to show he wasn't going to back down.

He shook his head and turned back to the console, just as a nurse arrived. "Sorry Tawn, this is going to be how it is. You have to be patient and wait."

Tawn left with the nurse from there without saying anything else to doctor Brigid. He hated having patients right now so much. The anticipation was already getting to him as they stepped down the halls. His fists tightened into clenches and he kept his eyes down at the carpet. Whatever came next, he was ready now.


End file.
